Rare Creature
by xxxPureRosexxx
Summary: Alice is a hunter. She hunts deer, rabbits, etc. One day she sees an injured white rabbit and decides to take it back to her cabin. What if this white rabbit isn't a ordinary rabbit? AU warning.
1. White Rabbit

**Pure: New story! So this idea wasn't my own this belongs totally to pennameabc I just like this idea of story for Alice and Peter so I hope you enjoy it as well! **

**Alice: So what happen to Shatter Reality?**

**Pure: I'm still doing it! I just want to start this one so I don't forget where I want this to go!**

**Alice: Alright…I guess…**

**Pure: So I hope you like this AU story! Disclaimer!**

**Peter: Pure doesn't own Joker/Clover/Heart no Kuni no Alice!**

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~**

_Steady now…almost got it…now! _An arrow whizzed through the air as it hit the deer right over its heart. "Yes! Perfect shot!" Walking over to the now dead deer, the figure picked up their prey, "It looks good too!" They shouted a smile on their face. "Hey! Alice!" The girl turned to the sound of her name; she waved over to the person who called her. "Hey Boris! Looks like you found me!"

Alice Liddell, a hunter in training age 16, walked up to her instructor/friend, "Of course I would, you're always out here in the wood." Boris Airay, teacher and Alice's dear friend age 23, laughed as he patted the maiden's head. "Did you see that? Right over its heart!" She clasped her hands, which caused her to drop the deer. "Watch it; you still need to have respect for your prey, whether it's dead or alive." He sternly said, picking it up for her.

"I know I know I got a little carried away there." The young girl took it away from him as she attached it to her belt. She flung her bow on her back as well, "It's best we be getting back to the cabin before its get dark out here." The man said to her as he turned to leave. "Alright…please tell me Ace isn't there." The brunette pleaded to him, "Ha! Only in your dreams Alice, only in your dreams." The punk man waved back to her as he went on.

The blue-eyed girl groaned as she face palmed herself, "Leave it to Ace to get lost, if we haven't found him I think he would still be wandering the woods." Ace, directionally challenged age 18, was abandon at a young age and has learned to survive in the woods until Boris found him one day when he was on the verge of death.

Walking, the hunter treaded through the deep forest, the sound of leaves crushed under her feet, the warm smell of pine and of the many flower scents. The birds sung, the trickled of a nearby stream, it was all familiar to the girl; it was her life ever since her parents passed away. And since then, she has lived with their closest friend, Julius Monrey, close friend to her parents and now guardian age 26.

**Rustle…Rustle…**

_Huh? _Alice pulled out her bow as she loaded it with an arrow, she stealthily walked over to the sound, she pulled back on the string ready to take aim if need be. She peered over from behind a tree, "What the?" What was before her was a rare white rabbit, hardly ever seen in these woods. "Wow…I've heard about these rabbits, but I never before seen any of them."

The white rabbit took notice in her; it cowered back in fear as it continued to pull at its leg. The young miss saw this as she cautiously moved towards it, not wanting to scare the poor creature more than it already was. "It's ok now…I'm not going to hurt you." She cooed to it, her weapons put away, the rabbit ongoing its attempts to get away stopped when the hunter lifted the rock that was on its hind leg.

"Wow that looks pretty bad…but I think nothing Julius can't fix, come on." Alice gently picked up the rabbit as she cradled it in her arms. Thunder was heard above her, she looked up when a rain drop fell on her nose. "Uh oh, we got to go!" Standing up, the brunette sprinted back to the safety of the cabin, rain fell harder on the two as the cabin came into view.

**Slam!**

"That was close! Aww man! Now I'm all wet!" The blue-eyed girl complained, her entire hunter's gear was soaked wet, her hair dripped down her back, and even the rabbit's fur was stuck to its body. "Alice! Your back!" Ace called out to the girl as he came up to her, "Wow you're all wet!" He laughed at her, the girl's eye twitched. "No! I didn't notice Ace." She sarcastically said back to him, "I did tell you to come back soon." Boris stated as he looked back over his shoulder to the girl.

"Ha ha ha, of course, where's Julius?" "I'm right here." A long, navy blue-haired man came out in to the living room with the rest of them, a white coat draped over his shoulders. "Hi Julius! You've been working a lot lately; you should take breaks more often. Enjoy the fresh air!" Thunder and lightning was heard from outside, a sweat drop formed at the back of her head.

"Right…I'll do that…what's that in your arms?" The bluenette pointed at the creature in her arms. "Oh this! It's a rare white rabbit! I found it on my way back, but he injured his leg. Can you take a look at it?" She brought him over to her guardian; he took it in his arms as he examined the wound. "It doesn't look so bad, bandaging it up and allowing him to rest should do the trick."

Ace and Boris smiled evilly to one another, "Or we can cook it in a big pot with the other little guy you brought." They said together, already reading the pot; Alice quickly grabbed the rabbit out of Julius's arms. "No! I'm keeping him! And you can't do anything about it!" The maiden ran to her room as she shut the door behind her, the girl sighed; she took a quick shower, soon after changed into her nightgown.

She brought the little rabbit over to her bed, a towel in hand, "Don't worry little guy, they won't lay a hand on you…unless they want to be hunted down." A sinister laugh escaped her mouth; the white rabbit cowered a bit in fear once again. "You're probably cold and wet." The young girl dried the rabbit off, his fur fluffed out, which made him look like a puff ball.

"Now to wrap up your leg." The white rabbit watched as Alice wrapped up his leg, he stared curiously to the girl, trying to understand her actions to him. "There we are! Good as new…now I honestly can't keep calling you rabbit now can I?" The blue-eyed girl pondered the thought for a bit, "Luke…no…maybe Steve? No…that's not good either…" The white rabbit look up at her with his crimson red eyes, his nose twitched ever so often.

"I got it!" She snapped her fingers, "Peter! Peter White is what I'll call you, I think it fits you well what do you think? Do you like it?" The brunette held Peter up to her face as she looked into his eyes. Peter licked her nose, which caused her to laugh. "I'll take that as a yes then…you're so adorable! I never had a pet before…usually they're dead before I take care of them…but with you."

The young girl's gaze rested on Peter, who stared back up at her, "Your different…I don't know how or why, but I just have this feeling. Well lets go to sleep." The young girl tucked herself in bed as she placed Peter next to her. "Good night Peter, see you in the morning." Alice pulled him closer to her, just enough not to injure his leg further as she fell into a deep sleep.

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~**

"Morin' Alice! Breakfast is ready!" Ace happily said to a sleepy girl, who came into the room with a still sleepy Peter as well. "Hi…what's for breakfast?" "Eggs and your meat from yesterday." Boris answered; he placed some plates on the table. "You still have that rabbit?" "Yes I do and his name is Peter White." "How do you know it's a he?" Ace asked, "He is, I checked him yesterday." Julius responded as he came into the room as well.

They nodded, all of them sat at the table, the rabbit on Alice's lap. "Do you have carrots that I can give him? He must be hungry." "Yeah…here." The instructor handed her some carrots, she put it in front of his mouth as Peter sniffed it before taking small bites out of it. The young miss smiled down to him as she petted him, "Do you have your bags packed Alice? We will be leaving soon." The bluenette deadpanned, taking a bite out of his food. "Already? I don't want to go back to school yet."

She pouted, her gaze rested on Peter once again, "I'm sorry Alice, but we can't stay up here forever." Boris sadly said. "I know…I'll go start packing now." The hunter got up as she took the white rabbit back to her room, setting him on her bed; the girl took a pillow and screamed into it. "It's not fair!" The young maiden fell back on to her bed, pillow still covered her face.

Peter limped over to her, he licked her hand to gain the girl's attention, she pulled it away to stare back at the rabbit's crimson red eyes. "I'm sorry Peter White; I just like the fresh air out here, the open space, the wind through my hair. I just like the forest here…I practically grew up in the woods…ever since my parents died that is…" The rabbit curled up next to her as he urged her to go on.

"You're a nosy little rabbit aren't you, alright, I'll tell you as I'm packing up." Alice moved him over a bit so she could get up, the hunter started to pack her things as she continued on with her story. "You see my parents were often ill at times…very ill that they were always in bed. Julius came over every day to make sure that I was ok…one day their illness was too great."

"So they just died in their sleep." Tears fell down her eyes, "I'm glad that they died in their sleep…an easy…painless way to die…I guess…so…umm." She wiped her tears away as she sat next to him, stroking his fur. "Julius took me in; after he found out that they died. Then…as a stress reliever he put me in hutting lessons, that's where Boris came in, and around when I was 10, did all of this happen."

The crimson-eyed rabbit stared up at her, his eyes showed sadness, "Thanks for listening Peter; I hardly talk about this with anyone so I appreciate you lending an ear." "Alice! Hurry up! We're going!" Boris called out to her. "I'm coming!" The blue-eyed girl called back as she shook her head. "They can be quite a pain sometimes….but they're all my closest friends….and I hope we can too."

Quickly putting her clothes into her bags, Alice grabbed her gear, clothes, and Peter as she ran out of the cabin. "Come on!" "Calm down Boris! I'm here!" Both the brunette and white rabbit got into the car, Julius started it up as he pulled out of the driveway. The young girl hoisted Peter White up onto her lap so he could look out of her window.

"You're going to like where we live Peter, it's a nice big house with a wide open backyard, a lot of places for you to hop around and such." She kissed his head, ruffling his fur once more. "Very nice place I believe, you'll love it."

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~**

"Go to bed early Alice, school starts right in the morning." Julius stated as he headed to his office, the girl threw her shoe at her guardian's head. "Don't forget to go to sleep early as well Julius!" She swiftly yelled, the bluenette grunted as he saw her go up the stairs into her room. "Troublesome girl." He mumbled retiring into his office for the night. Alice opened the door to her room as she stretched her arms over her head.

"What do you think Peter?" Her room was somewhat plain, her walls were a forest green; her curtains were a sky blue, carpet and a small full sized bed in the middle. "I know pretty plain and simple, but I really like it." They went to her bed; she threw her bags off to the side as they both fell back onto the bed. "I wish I could bring you to school tomorrow, but it's against the rules to bring animals to school."

She smiled to him, once again ruffled his fur, "I'll be back as soon as I can tomorrow so I can show you the rest of the house, but for tonight, we sleep!" The young maiden changed back into her nightgown, she plopped onto her bed as she tucked herself in with Peter next to her once more.

"Night Peter White, see you in the morning."

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~**

**Pure: First chapter done! I really like where this is going! Once more original idea goes to pennameabc! **

**Alice: …Too…cute…**

**Pure: He is, isn't he? !**

**Alice: I'll agree when he is a rabbit…just too cute to resist…**

**Peter: My darling Alice loves me! *Glomps her***

**Alice: I do not!**

**Pure: Yet!**

**Alice: Pure!**

**Pure: What? It's true…well I hope you like this so far!**

**Boris: Review!**


	2. Peter Transformation

**Pure: Can't resist! I want to figure out what happen next myself! That's probably weird…**

**Alice: No you should do Shattered Reality first.**

**Pure: I will! It's just that, my OC will be coming in the next one and I want to make him good before he appears, therefore I need a bit more time on him.**

**Alice: Fine…though I'm kind of curious too…**

**Pure: Aha! You can't deny his cuteness!**

**Alice: Urgg…mmm…*Blushes***

**Peter: My darling Alice!**

**Alice: Stay away from me!**

**Ace: Pure doesn't own Joker/Clover/Heart no Kuni no Alice!**

**Pure: Also! Thank you Miss Holidays for pointing out my mistakes! Hopefully I added in the new tips you gave me!**

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~**

"Alice! Breakfast!" _Huh? _The brunette's eyes fluttered open, light peered in through her window as it hit her face. She covered her eyes to block out the sun.

"Uhhh…I don't want to get up…" Alice rolled over as she pulled Peter closer to her; she snuggled into his warm fur, liking the feeling on her face.

"Get up Alice!" Ace slammed open her door as he almost made it come off it's hinges, the hunter's breaths were soft and slow as she continued to sleep.

"Don't make me do this Alice~" Ace grinned slyly; he walked over to her bed, the man then pulled her covers off.

"Ahhh!" The older teen picked her up as he flung her over his shoulders.

"Ace! Put me down!" The blue-eyed girl demanded.

"Nope!"

"Ace!" She whined to her friend.

"Ouch!" Ace started to hop on one foot now, Peter bitted his foot as he hung on to the boy's foot. He dropped the maiden back onto her bed, which earned a groan of pain that escaped her lips.

"You little rabbit." Peter was now in Ace's hands as the older boy stared darkly at him, "That pot is looking really good right now." The white rabbit met his stare with his own, not at all fazed by it.

"Give him back!" The young miss shouted, she moved to get him, but Ace blocked off her path.

"I'm good, there's a pot with his name written all over it." The crimson-eyed rabbit now bitted his hand, which caused the boy to drop him.

The young girl dove around him and caught Peter before he could fall to the ground, "Ha!" She got back up with the rabbit in hand.

"Damn it! Ace! Alice! Get your asses down here!" Julius angrily yelled up to them, they both froze with fear, knowing that it wasn't a good idea to keep a pissed off Julius waiting.

"Hurry Alice before we're both screwed!" The ruby-eyed boy called back as he sprinted out of her room, Alice quickly got dress, and then sprinted out of the room with Peter in hand.

"You're late." The bluenette growled his eyes were blood shot red from the lack of sleep.

"I did warn you to go to bed early yesterday." The girl mumbled as she took her seat next to Boris.

"What was that?" He glared at her.

"N-Nothing J-Julius. Oh! Would you look at the time! We're going to be late, lets go Ace!"

"Right away Alice!" Both teens quickly finished their food before they stood up.

"Take care of Peter Boris! And if he's not here in one piece when I get back, you're dead!"

The instructor nervously laughed, a sweat drop formed at the back of his head, knowing that she meant her threat. Alice and Ace got into the car as the older boy began to drive them to school.

"Left Ace! Left!" The hunter shouted to him, the older boy just laughed as he made a sharp left turn. "You're hopeless." She sighed; her hand covered her eyes as she shook her head.

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~**

"We made it in one piece…barely…" Alice shivered from the near death experience; Ace flung his arm over her shoulder as he brought the girl closer.

"Come on Alice! It wasn't that bad!" The ruby-eyed teen happily said.

"Yes it was."

"Alice!" Both teens turned to the sound of the new voice.

"Vivaldi!" The young miss called back to her friend.

"We missed you this winter break! Why didn't you come back for New Years? !" Vivaldi Dupre, Alice's closest girl friend and only girl friend 16 years old, asked her.

She rubbed the back of her head. "Sorry Vivi-chan I was up in the woods with Julius and the others."

The violet-eyed girl pouted. "You hardly hang out with us Aliy-chan."

"I'm really sor-"The young girl started, but was cut off.

"Alice chu!" The group turned to the sound, a boy ran up to them as he cowered behind the hunter.

"What happen now Pierce?" Pierce Villiers, a sophomore and most timid friend 15 years old, stuttered out what happen.

"Don't believe that rat!" Two younger boys ran up to the group as well.

"Dee, Dum, you know that you should be doing that." Dee and Dum, freshmen and twins 14 years old, began to defend themselves when they accidently pushed the maiden, which caused her to fall back on Pierce.

"Owww…" They both said.

"We're sorry Onee-chan!" Both boys apologized as they helped her up.

"Its fine…but I don't think Pierce is…"

**Briiiing!**

"That's the morning bell, you guys go on ahead, and I'll take Pierce to the health office." Alice offered as she picked up a dizzy boy, they nod their heads before heading off, both teens headed to the health office. "Hello? Is anybody here?"

"Alice! It's good to see you again." Nightmare Gottschalk, nurse and sick man 27 years old, called out to the girl.

"Hi Nightmare, Pierce here is a bit dizzy you can say…can he stay in here for morning classes?"

"Of course! You may stay here with him if you like."

The girl smiled to him. "Thanks, I'll do that." She places him on the bed and takes a seat next to the nurse.

"So how was your winter break?" The older man asked.

"It was great! I went up to the woods with Julius, Boris, and Ace, and then I found this rare white rabbit! He's is so cute! And adorable! And and-"

"Whoa, calm down Alice, I'm sure you had a great time up there then." He cut her off before she went on.

"I sure did!" Nightmare smiled as he patted the young girl's head.

"That's great, I-"The nurse started, but was cut off.

"Nightmare!" Both the blue-eyed girl and sliverette turned to the new voice.

"Ahhh, headmaster Gowland what pleaser do I have with you today?"

"No need to be formal Nightmare." Mary Gowland, school principle and close friends with Julius 40 years old, laughed as he flung his arm around the other man's shoulders.

"Alice? Good morning Alice, why aren't you in class right now?" The principle asked.

"I'm staying with Pierce until he wakes up." She replied as she pointed over to the sleeping boy.

"I see…that's alright as long as you don't fall behind." Mary agreed, "Well I better get going, Nightmare take care of these youngsters for me." He patted his back roughly hard, which caused the nurse to cough up blood.

"Ewww!" Alice cringed back before the blood got on her; Nightmare took out a handkerchief as he wiped away the blood.

"Sorry about that." He apologized.

"Really Nightmare you should just go to the hospital," A sweat drop formed at the back of Gowland's head. "I mean you are a certified doctor…I'm surprised how you got that in the first place."

"Are you kidding me? ! Those places are scary!" The nurse whined as the principle slapped his own forehead.

"Work with me here Nightmare," He sighed. "Well I'll be going, good bye Alice." The man waved behind as he left the room.

"You guys are something alright." The hunter answered after being quiet for some time.

"Tell me about it; anyway, tell me about the rest of your winter break." Nightmare smiled towards the girl.

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~**

School was now over as the young maiden made her way back to the car, "Alice!" The miss turned around and spotted Vivaldi, Ace, the twins, and an now awake Pierce as they ran up to her.

"Hey guys!" She waved to the group as they came up to the blue-eyed girl either smiling or hugging her.

"Alice, we would like to come home with you, because we've not seen you all break." Vivaldi demanded as she looked into the other girl's eyes.

"I don't think so Vivaldi, we must go home now." Everyone turned to the new voice that had just come up.

"Blood! We don't want to!" The violet-eyed girl fiercely said back, Blood Dupre, college student and Vivaldi's older brother 21 years old, shook his head to his younger sister.

"Sorry Vivaldi, we must, besides I have to take Elliot and Gray home today." He replied as he pointed to his friends behind him.

Elliot March, Blood's closer friend and loyal follower 20 years old, gave a small salute to the group. Gray Ringmarc, well educated and quite one 20 years old, gave a small nod to the group before them.

"Please Blood!" His sister pleaded to her brother, Ace laughed as he smiled to them.

"Why don't you let her? I don't mind taking her back, or Julius could bring her back." He suggested to the ravenette, the 'Queen', as people at school would describe her, quickly nodded her head, agreeing with him.

"I can't let you do that, we will just come also." Blood gave in, Vivaldi squealed as she gave her brother a hug.

"Thank you! Come on Alice lets go!" Alice was pulled along with Vivaldi to Ace's car; soon the older boy followed the two girls. The rest either went home or followed them back to the house.

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~**

"You damn rabbit! When I get my f****** hands on you, you're going to be cooked so well that even the demons down in hell will enjoy your sorry ass!" Boris shouted as the group entered the house, the place was a disaster, like a tornado ran through the place.

Trash was everywhere, pots and pans throughout the place, papers scattered and even clothing as well as food. "What happen here?" Alice mumbled as they looked at what was in front of them. Peter came into the room; he spotted the hunter as he hopped into her arms.

"Peter!" The brunette exclaimed the white rabbit licked her face, which caused the girl to giggle.

"There you are! You damn rabbit!" The instructor stormed into the entrance of the house, an angry expression on his face.

"Boris what happen here?" Ace asked, his gaze not leaving the scene in front of him.

"Why don't you ask that rabbit? !" He shouted.

"What did he do?" The maiden demanded as she held him closer.

"What did he do? ! Look around you! That rabbit is being cooked whether it likes it or not!" The punk man's eye twitched his nerves ready to snap and just take the rabbit by force from the miss's hands.

"No you won't! Peter White is my friend and you won't take him from me!" The blue-eyed girl shouted small tears fell from her eyes as she ran up to her room, slamming the door behind her.

"Nice going you cat! Look what you did!" Vivaldi yelled at the older man.

"What did I do? ! That rabbit caused all of this! If he just behaved then none of this would had happen!" They both started arguing as the rest of the group just watched the two go back at one another.

"Shouldn't we stop them Blood?" Elliot whispered to his friend.

"Would you like to get in the middle of those two? I still have a life you know, just leave them be, they will calm down soon enough." Blood replied.

A small blush came on Gray's face at the sight of the rabbit that was just in the room, no one paid him attention so they didn't see it. _So...cute…I must hold him._

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~**

"I don't understand! Why can't anyone accept you like I do? !" The hunter screamed into her pillow as she fell back onto her bed, Peter jumped up next to her, a worry expression on his face.

"I wish you could be human Peter…then no one would cook you or try to eat you…and then we could talk!" Alice perked up at the idea; she sat up as she clasped her hands. "That would be wonderful! Such an impossible thing though…but isn't believing in the impossible fun?"

_Wouldn't that be interesting…_ "Don't you thi-"The brunette was cut off when a cloud of smoke appeared, she coughed as she fanned the smoke away from herself. "Peter are you ok-ah!" The young girl jumped back off the bed.

Peter sat on the bed, but was transformed, literally. He now had short snow white hair, crimson red eyes, and two rabbit ears on his head…he was also naked.

"Ahhh!"

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~**

**Pure: This chapter was basically an introduction of the other role holders and first appearance of Peter's transformation! So this probably wasn't so good, but the next will get better!**

**Alice: My eyes!**

**Pure: What? It's not like I explained it in great detail so you'll live.**

**Alice: No I won't!**

**Peter: *Blushes***

**Pure: Ha ha! You guys are hilarious! Hope you enjoyed this one!**

**Dee & Dum: Please Review!**


	3. Some needed help

**Pure: Now we update this one! I'll be going back and forth with this one and Shattered Reality so they both get regularly updates!**

**Sebastian: And why am I here for this one?**

**Pure: It gets lonely sometimes, and for those who don't know him he is my OC from Shattered Reality, also he is not the Sebastian from Black Butler, the only thing they have in common is the name and clothing. Nothing more or nothing less.**

**Alice: You lonely? Get a boyfriend or something then.**

**Pure: You just love pushing my buttons don't you?**

**Alice: As long as you're pushing mine then we don't have a problem now do we?**

**Pure: Fair enough disclaimer!**

**Pierce: Pure doesn't own Joker/Clover/Heart no kuni no Alice chu!**

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~**

"Human! On my bed! Naked! Ahhh!" Alice shielded her eyes from the man that sat on her bed; Peter was confused by her reactions to his human form. The bed shook as he got off it; the white rabbit moved towards the huntress, his hand cupped her face as he made her look at him.

"P-P-Peter!" Quickly looking around, the brunette saw that her bed sheets would be the only thing to cover his form. She shifted around him as she ran to the bed, the maiden tore off her sheets, throwing them on the still confused rabbit.

"There! That should cover you up for the time being…but…how did this happen?" The crimson-eyed man gazed down at the sheets the young girl threw on him; he lifted them up, examining it. "Can…can you talk?" She asked slowly making her way over to the man.

Looking up, Peter's vision was blurry, he couldn't tell if the miss made her way over to him, but heard her question to him. The young man shrugged his shoulders, not so sure himself if he could. "So you don't know if you can? Well everyone has to be able to talk, even if you were a rabbit a few minutes ago."

She thought for a moment, "I could always teach you how to speak." The blue-eyed girl gasped at her own idea. "Yes! I could most certainly do that! Then we can talk with each other, and-"

"Alice?" Blood called outside her door as he knocked on it, a small shriek escaped the girl's lips as she frantically looked around.

"Transform back in to a rabbit!" She silently yelled to Peter, he cocked his head to the side; the young girl face palmed herself.

"Alice? Are you in there? May I come in?" Another yelp escaped her lips as she saw the door knob twisting open. _The closet! _Alice mentally remembered the brunette grabbed the white rabbit, which caused him to slightly yell at her sudden touch, as she forced them into the closet.

Both her and the man squeezed next to each other in the small closet, as they listen for the college student. "I could have sworn she was in here…I hope I'm not going mad and start hearing things." Blood sighed, he turned and left the room, the maiden strained her ears up, still listening if the man would return.

The crimson-eyed man was beyond confused, his owner was up against him, from what he observed over the years before when someone was this close they usually…He shook his head as a small blush came on his face, Peter tried to lightly push her off him, but he cried in pain when he stepped on something sharp.

"Shhh! I hear someone coming!" The huntress silenced his cry; she lost her footing as they both fell back further into the closet.

"Did you hear that?" Boris said, he came up to apologize to the girl, but he couldn't find her.

"Hear what?" Vivaldi questioned the instructor.

"Never mind must have been my imagination."

"Alright, we can see that she is not here, maybe Alice went into a different room?"

"Maybe, let's go check somewhere else then." They both agreed as they left the room as well.

The young maiden and white-haired man were silent, they stared in to the other's eyes, Alice was now under Peter, due to his fast reflexives, as he pinned her to the ground. Neither one of them knew what to do in their new position, _They're going to look in here eventually, I need him to transform back before they find him. _

She sat up, lightly pushing the man off her, "Come on, we need you to transform back in to a rabbit before they find you." The girl softly said a small smile on her lips, the rabbit-eared man nodded. He closed his eyes as he concentrated; another cloud of smoke came from him.

Coughing, the blue-eyed girl opened the door, the smoke poured out as her coughing fit continued. She looked over and saw that Peter had turn back into a rabbit, "Alice? There you are!" Ace called out to his 'sister' as he came up to her.

"Ace! What are you doing here?" The young girl asked.

"Everyone is looking for you! Come on it's time for dinner!" He grabbed her hand as he dragged her down stairs. The white rabbit followed close behind them, _Is it already that late?_

"You're late. Where have you been?" Julius asked as they came into the dining room, Boris and her guardian were the only people in the room.

"Where is everybody else?" The young miss asked.

"They left already." The punk man deadpanned as he took a bit out of his food.

"Oh…okay…" They ate in silence, after doing the dishes and putting away the leftover food, Alice ran back upstairs with Peter in hand. She sat on the bed as she placed him in front of her.

"Wait here, I'm going to get you some clothes." The brunette ordered, she left the room, as she acquired some of Julius's old clothing, the girl returned to see that the white rabbit had already transformed in to his human form.

"Peter you got to be careful, what if someone came in here that wasn't me and saw you like that? Here put these on." She lightly blushed, throwing him the clothing as she looked away. No movement was heard, the huntress turned back around as she saw that Peter was not putting on the clothes.

"You don't know how to put them on do you?" He looked up at her; a sheepish smile on his face, a sigh escaped the blue-eyed girl's lips. "Here let me help you." She walked over to him as she took the shirt from his hands. "Ok, put this on over your head, your arms go in through these holes. No only one not both, now pull it down."

The shirt fit him perfectly, Alice motioned him to stand up with the undershorts in hand, "Put your legs through the holes, one in each then pull them up." She explained with little eye contact, he successfully put them on and did the same with the sweats. They both sat back on her bed once done.

"Now that's done, lets start with you learning how to talk. You can understand me right?" The crimson-eyed man nodded yes, "That's good, and that will help you to speak better once you learn, oh!" The maiden gets up; she grabs her notebook and a pen, returning back over to him where he continued to sit on the bed.

"I can show you what each letter looks like, this right here is an A." She writes the letter on the paper, "An A sounds like-hey!" The rabbit-eared man took the notebook from her hand, he held it close up to his face, and then pulled it away as he sighed.

"Can you not see it?" He shook his head, "Can you see how many fingers I'm holding up? What about how I look like? You're not blind are you?" Peter quickly shook his head as he waved his hand back and forth as well. "So do I look blurry to you?" The white rabbit smiled, nodding yes.

"Wait here, I'll be back again." The huntress left the room once again, her footsteps faded as they went down the stairs. The man's ears went straight up when he heard shouting from down stairs.

"Alice! Hey! Give me back my glasses!" Julius yelled.

"Sorry, but I need them!"

"Those are my reading glasses Alice!"

"But I need them now! It's really important! You'll get them back eventually Julius!"

"Alice!" The maiden opened and closed the door before the bluenette could argue with her more.

"Here, try these on." The brunette put them on him, as she did so Peter saw clearly now, he blushed when he finally saw his owner's face. Even as a rabbit did he had trouble seeing what the girl really look like, now the man saw that she looked really cute.

"Do they work? How many fingers am I holding up now?" She held three up; he copied her movements, "How about from here?" Getting up, the blue-eyed girl went to the other side of the room, two fingers up, and once again did he copy her hand movements.

"Great! Now lets continue."

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~**

"I'm going to be soooo late!" Alice ran down stairs, bag in hand as she quickly grabbed a toast before running out the door. "Dang it Ace! Why couldn't he have the decency to at least wake me up? !" _Keep running keep running! _The thought ran through her head the whole way to school.

"Alice! Hurry! The bell is about to ring!" Pierce Villiers shouted to the girl as he waved her to hurry.

"Go Pierce! Before you're late too!" She yelled back to him.

"Okay!" He ran off to his own class, the bell rang just seconds after the young miss entered the room.

"Made…it…barely…" She said between breaths, the teacher came into the classroom next.

"Alright everyone settle down, Ms. Liddell, please take your seat now."

"Yes sir." The blue-eyed girl took her seat towards the back of the room, which was also next to Vivaldi's seat.

"What happen Alice? Why were you so late?" The violet-eyed girl whispered over to her, book up.

"I went to sleep late last night so I got up late; Ace just left me at home so I had to run all the way over here. I'm so lucky that I made it." The huntress explained in a whisper as well, book also up.

"That stupid knight, just because he has kendo practice early in the morning doesn't give him the right to leave you at home."

"It's not so bad, he really enjoys kendo, and I don't want to keep him from doing that. If it means a few morning running to school so he can continue it, then I'll gladly put up with it."

"Your too nice for your own good sometimes Alice, but we respect you for that." Vivaldi smiled to her.

"Thanks Vivi-chan." Alice smiled back to her; a slight cough was heard next to the girls, they looked up to see the teacher standing right in front of them.

"Would you like to share with the rest of the class what you two were talking about hmmm?" He tapped his foot angrily as he glared back at them, a sweat drop formed at the back of their heads, both nervously laughed to him.

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~**

"That was a close one don't you thing Vivaldi?" The brunette asked, school was over and she, Vivaldi, Pierce and the twins walked out of the main building.

"What was close Onee-chan?" Dee and Dum asked as they came up to her.

"Vivaldi and I almost got in trouble in class."

"For talking no doubt, the teachers here are too strict." The Queen deadpanned.

"But all they want is for us to learn." Pierce threw in, defending the school's staff.

"Or to just get rid of us all." Dee said.

"They seem bored by us anyway." Dum also said.

"Does it matter? Just drop the subject…uhhh Alice?" The violet-eyed girl asked her friend.

"Yeah? Something wrong?"

"Alice!" Turning to the sound of her name, the girl's eyes widen at who she saw, Peter White, in his human form with surprisingly neat clothes on with a hat on his head that covered his ears, waved over to her by the school's gate. His face beamed with joy.

"Who's he Onee-chan?" The twins asked as the pulled at her sleeves.

"Yes who is he? We've never seen that man before." Vivaldi narrowed her eyes to him.

"He's…an acquaintance of Julius! He must have came to pick me up; I'm guessing Julius can't come himself." She swiftly said as a nervous laugh escaped her lips, _Oh why is Peter White here now of all time? ! _

"Can't Ace take you home though?" The timid boy asked.

"No, because he got detention today for after school, so he can't take me."

"We could take you home, we're sure Blood won't mind."

"No no I don't want to bother him, besides, I can't just send him home after he came all this way. I'll see you guys tomorrow!" Alice ran off, the maiden grabbed Peter as she dragged him away from her friends and the school.

"Peter! You know better than to come when I'm at school!" The huntress scowled the man.

"Want see you Alice!" He happily said to her, proud that his speech is getting better.

"It's 'I wanted to see you Alice!' Peter, but you're getting better with only one night of lessons." She smiled at his eagerness to learn.

"Alice good tea…teac..."

"Teacher, I'm a good teacher."

"Teacher!" The rabbit-eared man threw his hands into the air; the girl couldn't help but laugh at how he acted like a child.

"By the way, very good at dressing yourself, you got better at that."

"Watch others." He responded as they continued to walk home.

"Peter be careful when you do that, Julius or Boris can't know that you can transform in to a human."

"Why?" The brunette bit her bottom lip as she pondered the thought.

"Well…they can't know yet, this is our secret for now alright?"

"Secret?"

"What that means is that you can't tell anyone about this, about you transforming in to a human. No one can know yet alright, can you do that for me?"

"Of course!" The crimson-eyed man agreed.

"Thanks now lets get home before they wonder where we both are." Alice responded taking his hand in her own, Peter's cheeks turned a light pink at the contact their hands made. They both walked home hand in hand, back to where they lived.

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~**

**Pure: Adorable! Peter is sooo cute!**

**Alice: I'm still scarred for life.**

**Pure: It wasn't that bad! You're too paranoid.**

**Alice: You? Calling me paranoid? As if.**

**Pure: Are we going to start this again?**

**Alice: Depends.**

**Pure: Lets just avoid that…for now….**

**Sebastian: Please review.**


	4. Date?

**Pure: Yes, flame me, hate me, whatever you prefer.**

**Alice: It's only been a week.**

**Pure: Yeah and a week isn't long, so 1 I was procrastinating, 2 a lot of cleaning to do for a party, 3…just lazy.**

**Alice: -_-"**

**Pure: But mostly reason two for updating so late, very sorry about this. Hopefully this will make up for it…maybe…**

**Alice: And we will see where this will go!**

**Pure: *Yawns* Glad your happy about this…**

**Alice: You're tired?**

**Pure: Yeah…too much cleaning…and homework…disclaimer…**

**Gowland: Pure doesn't own Joker/Clover/Heart no Kuni no Alice.**

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~**

"That is a tree, those are buildings, were on a sidewalk, and over there is a street." Alice said as she pointed out each and everything she started to list. Peter looked at all the things she said, very curious about each one.

"Ne, Alice!" The rabbit-eared man asked, pulling at her sleeve.

"Yeah Peter?"

"That! Look!" He pointed at a small bakery on the other side of the street.

"The bakery?"

"Yes! Can, can? !" His eyes lit up, the smell coming from the place was breath taking to him, and he wanted to smell more.

"I don't know Peter…Julius is going to get mad if we don't get home soon…" The rabbit's expression sadden, his ears underneath his hat drooped.

"Okay…" The maiden felt guilty now, _I can't blame him for being curious, but…I'm going to be in so much trouble when I get home. _

"Well…maybe we can go in for a little bit, but only for a little bit ok?" The crimson-eyed man's face brightens up once more, he hugged the girl unexpectedly.

"Thank you Alice!" The huntress patted his back, soon he dragged her across the street to the other side, luckily there was no cars coming by when they did.

"Peter! You got to be more careful when you cross the street!" The young miss scowled him, he nodded his head.

"Sorry…"

"Just be more careful alright."

They both went inside, it was fairly small place, but the smell just took your breath away. It had a mixture of different breads, desserts, and tea, _Tea? That's interesting to see in a bakery. _The white rabbit looked all around the shop, his eyes wide open the whole time, as he had never seen or smelt anything like it before. His eyes soon rested on a small pastry in the display case.

"Can I help you with anything?" A worker asked as he saw the two, the maiden looked up at Peter, seeing that he was eyeing a dessert.

"Yes, we'll take that one please." She responded as she pointed at the one the rabbit gazed at, he looked at his owner, quite shocked by her actions.

"Excellent choice, that one has been really popular lately." He wrapped up the pastry and placed it in a bag for them, he then handed them the bag. "Please come again."

Alice waved to the man as she and Peter left the bakery, "Why?" The young man asked, still not so sure why she did that.

"Because, you looked like you wanted to try it, buying one thing isn't going to hurt anybody. Here, try it." The blue-eyed girl pulled out what she bought and handed it to him, he took a bite as his face lit up.

"Good!" The crimson-eyed man exclaimed as he took another bit out of it.

"Glad you do, it's a blueberry tart, my mother use to make me some when I was little."

She smiled, taking a bit out of the one she bought for herself; they ate in silence as they continued their walk. A thought ran through the brunette's head, she pondered the thought for awhile before having the courage to ask Peter what was bugging her. But the man noticed that she was fidgeting around, which made him worried for her well being.

"Alice? You okay?" Looking up, Alice saw that Peter had a worried expression on his face.

"I'm fine! I was just wondering…how old are you? You look like you're at least 20, but how about when you're a rabbit?" She asked the white rabbit tilted his head to the side as he thought about her question.

"2…3 soon." He answered, the maiden gagged a bit on her tart when she heard his answer.

"Two? ! That young? !" The man nodded his head.

"Young when a…aban…abanden?"

"You mean abandon?" Peter nodded once again, her outlook seemed to lose its warm feeling as one of hate and sadness took its place.

"I'm….sorry about that….Peter." The rabbit-eared man stopped the young girl by placing both hands on her shoulders, making her look back at him.

"No fell sorry, I ok now, I with you Alice." He smiled, trying to reassure her, she smiled back to him, and then a small laugh escaped her lips.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to laugh, it's just….you're really cute when you're trying to talk. Sorry again, I shouldn't think this is funny, but I can't help it."

More laughs came out as she tried to muffle them with her hands; Peter White just smiled to her. They once again continued their walk, soon enough they came to the house as it stood there in all its glory. The miss was able to stop her laughter when they came up to the gates that lead in to their home.

"Well we're here!" She exclaimed, throwing her hands up into the air, the man squinted, and then took off the glasses. The huntress saw that he took them off, "Is there something wrong with the glasses?" She asked.

"Hard see." He said as he looked over the thing called glasses.

"I wonder why…well…Julius did say everyone doesn't have the same eye prescription as one another. It was probably a bad idea to give you his in the first place, I just have to make sure to make you an eye doctor appointment then."

"Eye doc appoint?" Peter tried saying, but couldn't pronounce the words all the way.

"Eye doctor appointment, it's where you go to get glasses fitted for your own eye sight, it's perfectly harmless. We better go inside; you should change back as well."

The rabbit obeyed her command as a cloud of smoke came once again, he was then back in his rabbit form. The blue-eyed girl picked him up, carrying him inside with her, the place was trashed once again, a sweat drop formed at the back of the girl's head at the sight of the place.

"Shit! I'm in so much trouble once she gets-ahh!" Boris started to say, but stopped once he saw Alice standing by the door way.

"Boris is everything alright?" She asked as she looked around the room.

"Alice! I…was just…I mean…I didn't mean…wait what? !" The instructor was beyond confused now, as he stared at Peter who was in the maiden's arms.

"What's wrong?"

"He! I just! What the hell? !" He said as he pointed at the white rabbit, she looked down at Peter then back up at the punk man.

"Oh, were you looking for him?" The brunette pointed at the rabbit in her hand. "Peter White followed me to school today; luckily he was obedient and stayed outside until school was over so I could take him back home."

The older man was furious now, he had just spend all morning searching for the creature, as he worried his head off about what the girl might have done to him if he didn't find the rabbit. The cat just started laughing for no reason, feeling like he would one day go mad by this white rabbit, as he walked away from the two. The blue-eyed girl just watched as her friend left her by the entrance to the house, she shrugged off what just happen and just walked upstairs to her room.

Once there, she set Peter down as he transformed back to human, clothes still on and everything. "How were you able to keep your clothes on?"

"Not sure, just can." He shrugged.

"Ok then, how about you watch me do my homework, will help you learn more about what's going on in the world…slightly anyhow." Pulling out her books, the huntress set them down on the bed where the crimson-eyed man sat cross legged next to her.

"Homework?"

"Yup, it's what students do at school in order to help them practice in the subject they're taking."

"Students? School? Subject? Practice?" Poor Peter's head was spinning from the new words he just heard as he tried to comprehend what each one meant.

"Don't worry about that right now, we'll take it nice and slow. You'll understand what they all mean in due time, alright?" He moved his head up and down in agreement; the girl began her homework when a knock on her door was heard.

"Alice? I need to talk to you." Julius called from the other side, she shrieked at his voice.

"Wait! I'm changing! Don't come in!" The brunette jumped up off the bed, she kept silently telling Peter to change back, but he couldn't read her lips well.

"Yeah right Alice, I'm coming in." The door knob began to twist open, panicking; Alice pushed the young man back on her bed as she put the covers over him. She then got on top of him to hide the fact that he was there.

"Hi Julius! What do you need? !" She asked, seeing the bluenette come into her room, he raised an eyebrow to the position she was in, but then shook it off.

"I need my glasses back, now." He sternly said.

"Of course!" Putting her hand behind her back, the young miss felt for the glasses, Peter face was flushed as his owner touched his face, but kept quiet. She finally found the glasses and pulled them out. "Here they are!"

The miss shot up and ran right in front of her guardian, glasses out to him, he took it from her. "Thank you…do you need to see the eye doctor?" The older man asked.

"Yeah! I should have told you that I was having trouble with my eye sight, but I was embarrassed to tell you." She rubbed the back of her head, a sheepish smile on her lips.

"I'll make you an appointment then."

"Preferably earlier the better!" He looked back at her before nodding his head as he left her be. Closing the door, Alice sighed as she turned to face a flushed Peter.

"Ne, Alice? Why cheeks hot?" The white rabbit asked, touching his cheeks.

"Oh, they're not completely hot, there red from your blush."

"Blush?"

"Yup, your cheeks heat up or turn a bright red color when you're embarrassed or something…excites you I guess." The blue-eyed girl explained to him, he touched his cheeks again as he thought over what she said. _What excites me…?_

"Hey Alice I-"Julius started as he opened the door, but then heard a yelp. The maiden quickly took off her shoe and threw it at the rabbit-eared man, which caused him to fall back on to the bed with a huge bump on his head.

"Julius! What are you doing back her so fast? ! And what happen to knocking? !" She whirled around to face him, her expression fuming.

"My house, my rules, and I came back to tell you that your appointment is in about an hour. One doctor owed me a favor so he is willing to look at you for free, would you like me to take you there?"

"No no, I'm good, I'll just walk there. Thank you so much Julius!" She hugged him; he patted her head before prying the girl off him. He left as she closed the door to her room.

"Owww…" Peter said as he sat up, rubbing his bump in the process.

"Sorry, I panicked there, but now we have your appointment to get to. Transform back so we can go." Small tears formed in his eyes, but he nodded as he transformed.

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~**

They came up to a building that had a sign with an huge eye on it as it read below "Dr. Austin's Eye Lens and Wear.", Alice stared up at the sign, then back at Peter. "Well lets go in." She took his hand and took him inside.

"Is safe?" He asked, not so sure about the place.

"Yeah I'm sure; I've been here before when Julius needed new glasses because I broke his old ones." A small giggle escaped her lips at the memory; inside was deserted, though could you blame it, closing time was to come.

"Alice? Is that you?" Austin called out.

"Yup, it's me." He came out to greet her, but stop short when he saw Peter.

"Who's this?"

"This is Peter White, he is a friend of mine and…well he was the reason why I asked Julius to set up an appointment. Please don't tell him about this, I knew I couldn't set up the appointment so I made it seem that I needed it when Peter needed it more. So pleeeease don't tell Julius." The huntress pleaded.

"Its fine, I promise I won't, Peter was it? Come with me so I can check your eyes." The man waved him to follow; the rabbit-eared man looked back at the brunette, eyes slightly scared.

"Its alright, you'll be fine. I'll be right out here ok?"

She reassured him with a smile, he gave a small smile back before following the man into another room. The maiden took a seat in the waiting room; she swung her feet back and forth to pass the time. _I hope Peter is alright in there, there shouldn't be anything for him to worry about. Austin is a good man, but I hate how I have to lie to everyone about Peter being able to transform. I just don't think they could handle it yet._

The young miss sighed; she stared up at the ceiling, taking great interest in its structure, soon the door opened. The white rabbit came out of the room whit his new glasses on, they were big and round on him, but it fitted his personality well. "That was fast."

"Yes, l was lucky to have the right lens for him already in stock, saved some trouble from ordering new ones for him." Austin said.

"Thank you Austin." She replied to him as she took Peter's hand. "I'll see you later!" The girl shouted back as they ran out of the place.

"Works well!" Peter said as they came to a walk.

"That's good, now you should be able to see-"

"Alice?" Both the blue-eyed girl and crimson-eyed man looked to the new voice, Blood stood a few feet away from them.

"B-Blood! W-What are you doing h-here? !" The maiden stuttered a tint of pink came on her face at the sight of the man.

"I was just got out of work, but what are you doing out so late? And who are you?" The ravenette asked as he pointed to the man behind her.

"I'm Peter White, you?" Peter asked his tone was faintly hard; he already hated the man in front of them.

"My name is Blood Dupre. I'm Alice's friend's older brother." He replied coolly, and then looked back at the younger girl. "Alice?"

"Y-Yeah?" Her blush darkens a bit as he got closer to her.

"There is something I'd like to ask you."

"What is it?" The college student took her hand and kissed it, which caused her blush to turn a scarlet red color. A low growl escaped the white rabbit's lips at the sight, but no one seemed to hear it.

"Would you go on a date with me?"

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~**

**Pure: *Yawns* Well here is that…I had no idea where the date part came from…well I guess Peter needs some competition don't you agree?**

**Alice: I guess, but why Blood?**

**Blood: And what's wrong with me?**

**Pure: Hey, been a while hatter.**

**Blood: Been a while too Pure.**

**Alice: You're actually on speaking terms now?**

**Pure: Why not? I'm tired anyway, hope you enjoyed this.**

**Blood: Please review.**

**Pure: Also I did some research on how old rabbits are in human years around 1 they are 21 in human years and 27 when they are 2. I changed that a bit since I don't want him to be 1 so he is 2 almost 3 but is 20 years old in human form. Just in case anyone was wondering about that.**


	5. Mixed Feelings

**Pure: I'm going to put Shatter Reality on hold for a bit while I do this story.**

**Sebastian: It's me right? I'm horrible aren't I?**

**Pure: No! You're not! I just can't come up with any good ideas for it at the moment when many ideas come for this one! You're perfectly fine!**

**Alice: Yeah, stop being melodramatic about it.**

**Sebastian: I wasn't being melodramatic; I was just saying is all.**

**Alice: Right, of course.**

**Pure: Anyway! Sorry if you were looking forward to that, but it's not abandon. Once I get better ideas for it I will continue! Disclaimer!**

**Ace: Pure doesn't own Joker/Clover/Heart no Kuni no Alice!**

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~**

"I…I'm not so-"Alice started, but she was cut off when Peter pulled her back towards him a bit.

"No, she won't." He sternly said for the girl, Blood came closer to the white rabbit, still calm and collective.

"And what right do you have to decide for her? Who exactly are you to her anyway?" The ravenette asked as his voice came out harder then what he intended it to be.

"I'm Alice's-"He couldn't finish, because the maiden had clamped her hand over his mouth, pushing them both back as she nervously laughed to the older man.

"He is a friend of Julius; he has been working a lot lately and hasn't had time to come pick me up from school. And since Ace gets in trouble a lot, also with the kendo practice and all. Peter here has nicely offered to pick me up from school, when asked, and to take me to other places like here for example. I thought I was having trouble with my eye sight, turned out to be I was watching too much TV." The brunette rambled on as a hysterical laugh escaped her lips.

"Oh…I see…well what about the date?" He asked again.

"Ummm…can I think about it tonight? I'll tell Vivaldi to tell you my answer."

"No need, just tell me when I come get her tomorrow. I'll see you then Alice, do you need a ride home?"

'_He is such a gentleman!_' The young miss thought, her blush slightly returned, but quickly shook it off.

"No no, we're good, we'll just walk back. Thank you for the offer though."

"My pleasure, I'll see you tomorrow then Alice."

The college student waved back to her before heading off to his car. She waved back to him, and then started to drag Peter with her back to her house. They were quiet the whole time, the rabbit thought over his actions before; he wasn't sure why he did what he did.

'_Why did that? I no understand…' _A small sigh left his mouth; his ears drooped once more under the hat he wore.

"Transform back." The huntress commanded, the andesine-eyed man obeyed and was back again in his rabbit form. They went inside the house, it was partially quiet; until Ace came through, he soon saw Alice, and then smiled to her.

"Alice! Your back! We thought you go lost for a second there; your food is in the microwave. You better get it before it gets-"

"I'm not hungry." She cut him off, walking up the stairs as she slammed the door to her room.

"-Cold…I wonder what's wrong with her?" The ruby-eyed boy finished, as he just watched his sister retreat to her room.

The brunette walked over to her bed, she set Peter down as she retrieved her bag, the rabbit transformed back to human form. The man watched as the young girl went back to doing her homework; he looked at her, eyes growing sad by the minute. He felt like something was wrong, but couldn't quite place what was wrong with his owner. Peter took the risk and asked her what was bothering her.

"Alice…something wrong?" The maiden ignored him, "Alice?" Still no response, he softly sighed.

'_Did I make Alice mad?_' The white rabbit thought, he stared down at his feet, seeing that they were the only things he could look at without his gaze resting on his owner.

"Peter…" His ears perked up at her voice, he lifted his head to her.

"Yes?" The man asked eagerly, hoping that she wasn't mad.

"Why did you almost tell Blood that you were my rabbit? I thought we were going to keep it a secret. Were you lying?" Small tears formed in her eyes.

"Lying?" He tilted his head to the side; pure confusion on his face, the miss shook her head.

"Of course you wouldn't lie; you don't even know what that is…please forgive me. That's what had been eating at me the whole way home, though I should have known you wouldn't know how to lie. I'm really sorry…" The tears now fell from her eyes, which showed that she couldn't hold them back any longer.

The young man saw that the huntress was crying, but didn't know what to do or how to stop it. He did the first thing that came to mind and hugged her, or what he's use to, snuggling up close to the girl for comfort in his rabbit form, but couldn't do so as he was now, Alice stiffen at his sudden contact.

"I sorry Alice…I caused you tr...tro…troubal?" She laughed, wiping her tears away as she pushed back from the andesine-eyed man.

"It's trouble Peter, and no, no you didn't. This was completely my own stupidity for not remembering, you caused nothing of the sort." The sapphire-eyed girl smiled to him.

"Alice no mad anymore?"

"I was never mad…well…ok I was a little mad, but I knew I shouldn't have been. It was not your fault, lets just drop it ok?"

He nodded his head, "Okay." The rabbit-eared man thought about the, 'date', that was mention before. "Ne, Alice?"

"Yes?" She looked up from her math homework she was just currently working on.

"What's a date?" The maiden's faced flushed up as she looked away from him, he stared at her, waiting for her answer.

"Uhhh…well…a date is when two people…hang out I guess and get to know each other more. And…well…eventually, maybe, become boyfriend and girlfriend."

"What's a-"

"No! I'm not going farther than that! I'll tell you another time!" Alice quickly cut the white rabbit off, already guessing what he was going to ask next.

"Okay." Sighing, the girl moved closer to him.

"Now that that's settled, how about we do another speaking lesson?" Peter's eyes lit up as he swiftly nodded his head, the maiden giggled a bit before starting the new lesson.

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~**

"You've got to be kidding me!" The huntress shot out of the class room as she ran to the parking lot.

'_Please still be there, please still be there!_' She mentally screamed, running the best she could.

"Blood! Come on! We would like to get home now!" Vivaldi kept yelling at her older brother, who just stood by the gates of the school.

The ravenette sighed; '_I guess she left already._' He turned around to face his younger sister as he walked over to her.

"Wait! Please wait!" The college student rotated back around, he saw the young miss run up to him, she stopped right in front of the man, hands on knees as she panted from her run.

"Alice?" Blood asked, quite surprised that she was still here.

"I'm sorry…fallen asleep…last…period." The sapphire-eyed girl managed to breathe out, she looked up at him, a small smile on her face.

He smiled back to her, hand out to the girl, he helped her up. "So, had you thought about what I asked yesterday?"

"What did you ask yesterday? Was that why you got home late Blood?" The amethyst-eyed girl asked feeling left out of the conversation.

"Yes I have, and my answer is yes. I'll go on a date with you."

"What? !" The Queen and the twins shouted in unison.

Dee and Dum ran up to the brunette as they latched onto her arms, "No Onee-chan! You can't go on a date with him!" They pleaded to her; Elliot came over and pulled both boys off her.

"She can do what she wants; you have no say in the matter." He calmly said as he set them back on the ground.

"Stupid chicky rabbit!" The garnet-eyed boy yelled at the older man.

"Yeah! You can't tell us what to do! You're not our mother!" The kyanite-eyed boy exclaimed next.

The fluorite-eyed man glared back at the boys, "For starters, I'm not a rabbit! How the hell am I a rabbit?" The other college student slightly sneered.

"How are you not, is the real question." Dee responded.

"You eat carrots every day!" Dum also answered as both brothers crossed their arms.

"I don't eat carrots, they're disgusting."

"Beg to differ! You eat carrot dishes-"

"Ha! Those are the key words, carrot dishes, I don't actually eat carrots."

"They're the same thing!" They said together, both twins and the older man argued back and forth over the matter. A vein popped out of Blood's head, he went over and hit all three of them on the head.

"Owww!" They yelled simultaneously as they held their heads.

"Knock it off already." The ravenette strictly said, sending a glare there way, both freshmen and college students quickly nodded their heads. "I'm sorry about that Alice, shall we get going?"

The sapphire-eyed girl snapped out of her sudden thoughts of Peter, who she hoped would just stay home for today. "Yeah lets go." The iolite-eyed man took her hand as they walked out of the school.

"I expect to see her back by no later than 9!" Ace called out to them, a dark blush came on the huntress's face.

"Ace!...Wait Ace? ! What are you still doing here? !"

"I just got done with kendo practice! And I mean it Blood! She better be back before 9!" A sweat drop formed at the back of Blood's head, as he waved back to him.

"Will do!" He shouted back, taking the maiden's hand back in his once again as they left.

"Blood! What about your car? !" Elliot called after him; a low growl escaped the older man's lips. The young adult threw his keys back at, "the follower", as he caught them.

"Take Vivaldi home for me!" This time, without any more distractions, the ravenette took off running as he pulled the brunette along behind him.

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~**

Alice and Blood walked together in silence, it was a comfortable silence by the maiden's standards, and she was completely fine with it. Hand in hand, the huntress looked up at the college student; a small blush came up on her face as she stared at his facial features. The way his eyes moved as he took in the scenery, how his lips moved with every word that formed in his mouth, how his hair swayed with every step he took.

'_It's just breath taking how he is so…perfect…did I just say that? Wow Alice that's going a bit too far._'The miss shook off the thought as she gazed back up at him, seeing that she did, the iolite-eyed man smiled down to her as he gave her hand a small squeeze.

Peter watched the pair from afar; he came by to see Alice, but saw and heard the whole conversation with the date. Though the word is still new to him, he could guess most of its true meaning. The white rabbit followed them, making sure his presence wasn't known to them. He watched them, having a good time by the looks of things, the sapphire-eyed girl laughed at a joke the older man made as she playfully hit his arm.

The rabbit-eared man was distressed at the sight of them; '_I wonder if I did something wrong, to make it seem that she does not care about me…_' His speech had gotten better, but wasn't very well yet. He roughly shook his head. '_No, I know she cares about me, but…_'

"Let's sit here." Blood spoke up; the andesine-eyed man looked back at the two, seeing that they had arrived at a park. They both sat down on a bench, the sun had started to set as the last rays of light bounced off the trees, bringing them a shade of orange to their green leaves that hanged off the branches.

"Blood?" The young girl asked.

"Yes?" He responded back to her.

"I had a wonderful time today, and thank you for the meal from earlier."

"You're welcome; I couldn't possibly send you home on an empty stomach now could I?" A small giggle escaped her lips; Peter felt a pain in his chest when she giggled to the man.

"I guess not." It grew quiet between them, the huntress leaned her head onto his shoulder, the college student wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her closer to him as he, as well, laid his head on top of her own.

Another pain came to the white rabbit's chest as he held it with his hand, not so sure why his chest upset him. He stood there, watching the two, the sun finally set as the stars and moon came out. Both noticing this, got up off the bench, as they heading back to the brunette's home, they got there fairly fast for they were already close by.

"This is where I take my leave Alice." Blood said, stopping in front of the girl's home gates.

"Yeah, I guess so, thank you again, really." The young miss smiled up at him, taking her hands in his, the ravenette smiled down at her.

"No problem."The older man leaned down close to her face, the sapphire-eyed girl's face flushed up; she guessed what he was going to do. She put her head down so he kissed her forehead instead.

"Sorry…I'm…uhhh…not so sure about that yet." He pulled back and saw that her cheeks were a scarlet red color.

"Of course, my apologies, I shouldn't have taken it that far. I must get going then, Miss Liddell, I hope to see you again soon."

"Bye Blood!" She waved to the man who had walked off; he turned back around to wave back to her as well.

Peter continued to watch the whole scene play out, the pain only worsen in his chest, and he was perplexed by it. '_Why do I have this sudden pain?...What is this…feeling?_'

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~**

**Pure: I just couldn't do it! I couldn't make Alice be mad at Peter! I had the whole idea planned out too! I just…he's just too cute to get mad at!**

**Alice: He is way too innocent in this…**

**Pure: Not quite! His stalkerish characteristic has returned!**

**Peter: I'm not a stalker!**

**Pure: No! You're a cute stalker!**

**Peter: No I am not!**

**Pure: So too!**

**Alice: And stop there! Please review!**

**Pure: Also! I'm sure you noticed, or maybe wonder what the heck those words were, that I added gems instead of regular color! I thought they sounded prettier, so if you don't know what color they are here is a list!**

**Ruby, Andesine,** **Garnet - red**

**Sapphire, Kyanite, Iolite- blue**

**Amethyst, Fluorite- purple**

**And many more to come!**


	6. Challenged Accepted

**Pure: And I'm back with hopefully an interesting twist!**

**Alice: Twist? Do I even want to know?**

**Pure: Do you?**

**Alice: Not really…**

**Pure: Then find out later on in the story! I believe this is a good twist, maybe…sometimes my ideas don't come out how I want them to…hmmm hope that changes soon, disclaimer! **

**Nightmare: Pure doesn't own Joker/Clover/Heart no Kuni no Alice.**

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~**

A huge grin was plastered on Alice's face as she continued to organize the first aid kit that was in the health office. Nightmare watched the maiden; she hummed a tune that was unfamiliar to him. The nurse was getting quite worried about the girl at the given moment, even the past few days was he worried for her.

"Alice?" The older man asked, stopping what she was organizing at the moment.

"Yes Nightmare?" The brunette responded happily.

"Are you alright?"

"Of course why wouldn't I be?" His face showed a frown.

"Well…it's not that I don't appreciate you coming in here and helping me, but you've done this the past three days. And that worries me."

She put down a bottle of antiseptic, that she had currently been holding, onto the counter in front of her. "Everything is fine, I've just been really happy lately that's all." The sapphire-eyed girl reassured him with a smaller smile.

He wasn't quite convinced, "And what has made you so happy?" The silver-haired man asked as he turned around in his chair to get a better look at her.

"I went on a date on Tuesday." The huntress replied back as she giggled at the memory of it, the sickly man raised an eyebrow at the mention of a date.

"Who did you go out with?"

"Blood." Nightmare's eye slightly widened.

"Dupre? Blood Dupre?"

"Yes!" The miss happily clasped her hands together, the spinel-eyed man's expression disapproved at who she went out with.

"Alice, I don't-"

"Nightmare!" He was cut off when Gowland came into the room, as he flung his arm around the other man.

"Good afternoon Mr. Gowland, is there something you need?"

"How many times must I tell you to stop being so formal with me? Anyway have you gotten those papers done like I told you to?" The nurse's face fell ill, though not from his condition.

"Uhhh…I came around to that…when it was there…" The principal sighed as he took his arm off the younger man's shoulder.

"Afraid of hospitals, and doesn't like to do work. You know you are losing major character points in my book." A nervous laugh escaped Nightmare's mouth, Mary looked over and just noticed that Alice sat there watching them. "Hey sweetie, I didn't see you there."

She snapped out of her current thoughts of the possible trip up to the cabin this weekend when she heard the apatite-eyed man call for her. "Yeah, I have to go now. Have a good weekend Mr. Gowland, you too Nightmare!" The girl called back, running out of the building.

"Alice was quite happy don't you think?" Gowland asked, turning to Nightmare once the girl had left.

"Too happy…" The older man was confused at that statement.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean what I mean…she went on a date on Tuesday…with Blood." The principal's eyes widened.

"Blood Dupre? You're not serious."

The sickly man shook his head, "I'm dead serious, and I wouldn't joke about that." He stated as he got up to gather his things.

Mary sighed, as he ran his hand through his hair, '_Oh Alice, what have you gotten yourself in to this time?_' He thought, looking out the window to where he last saw the maiden run off.

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~**

"All done!" Alice shouted as she fell back onto her bed, the girl had just finished her homework before the weekend started.

"Now what do we do Alice?" Peter asked, sitting cross legged next to the brunette.

"Well…we can just hang out; I don't have any more homework so the weekend is free for us to do what we please!" She exclaimed as she put her school materials away.

The white rabbit thought for a while when he remembered something that Alice told him about the weekend. "But don't you usually hang out with friends on the weekend? Rather than stay home?" He asked her.

"Yes that's true, but I rather spend it with you!" The young miss cheerfully said.

"What happen to Blood?" The andesine-eyed man mumbled under his breath, the huntress looked back at him.

"Did you say something?" She asked, the rabbit snapped out of the sudden trance he was in.

"No…I didn't."

"Oh, ok, so what do you want-"A knock was heard as the sound bounced off the wall of the room.

"Alice? Can I come in?" Boris asked from the other side of the door, Peter then transformed back into a rabbit. He got better at it for there was no more smoke when he did so.

"Yeah come in." The huntress called back, the punk man opened the door and saw what he normally saw. Peter in Alice's lap, as always. "Do you need something Boris?"

"I came to tell you to pack your bags; we will be leaving in about an hour, so hurry like the wind." He stated, leaving the room.

The young miss's eyes lit up at the news, she ran and closed the door before swiftly grabbing her bag. The rabbit-eared man transformed back as he watched his owner scurry throughout the room, searching for things to throw into her bag. Curious, he stood up and tried to stop her, but she only moved around him.

"Sorry Peter, I need to get everything ready, I'll make sure to throw some clothes in for you." The sapphire-eyed girl quickly said, returning to her packing.

"Where are we going?"

"We're going back up to the cabin! You know, to the forest where I first found you."

"How come?" He asked as Alice pulled out her hunting gear.

"Because, sometimes Julius has to go up there and do some field studying, even if he is a veterinarian. It helps him learn about the different herbs he uses to make the medicine, also what he has to use if he found an injured animal on the spot and doesn't have any of his supplies with him. Thanks to that we got a cabin up there so we have somewhere to stay while he is doing all of that."

The brunette explained she lastly put her gear in her bag, slinging it over her shoulder. "Alice! It's time to go!" Ace called out to her from outside.

"I'll be there soon!" She called back out through the window, "Let's go Peter!" Arms out, the white-haired man transformed back once again, jumping into her open arms. They ran out of the house up to the car where everyone else waited for them.

"Took you long enough to get here." Julius stated as she hopped in.

"Sorry about that, let's go!" The veterinarian smiled as he pulled out of the drive way.

"Remember Alice, no staying up late if you want to be up bright and early. You still have quite a few things to learn before you become as good as me." Boris sternly said as they were on the road.

The huntress giggled, "Right, don't flatter yourself Boris." She said sarcastically, playfully rolling her eyes. He laughed as he looked in the rear view mirror.

"Right back at ya Alice."

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~**

The light peered in through the window; it hit Alice, which caused her to scrunch up her face. Eyes slowly opening, the sapphire-eyed girl shot up in bed, quickly crawling out, she began to throw clothes on herself. Blissfully proud with her clothing, the maiden shook Peter.

"Rise and shine Peter, time to go out!" The white rabbit opened his eyes when he was shaken; the miss picked him up, walking out of the room.

Both quietly headed out of the cabin, making sure not to wake anyone up, they were now outside. The morning mist still hung in the air, trees softly swayed with the light breeze, a perfect morning.

"You can transform now, no one will see you out here." She said to him, the andesine-eyed rabbit transformed back in to a man.

"Wow, it's colder than I thought it would be." The white rabbit said as he rubbed his hands together.

"It's not so bad, you'll get use to it, come on. I want to show you how I hunt."

The brunette took his hand, she lead him through the forest, to her favorite training spot. An open field, a perfect place for beginners, and for advance alike that had areas with little protection or much more. A smile played off her lips as she pulled out her bow, a deer had come into the clearing.

"Absolute silence and patience is the key." The sapphire-eyed girl whispered, pulling back on the string, she waited.

The deer's ears perked up at a sudden sound, they held her breath as it looked around, the deer went back to what it was doing when it felt no danger was near. Exhaling their breathes, the huntress waited awhile more, and then her arrow shot through the air. It was about to hit its target, but another deflected it off course. Both she and Peter were shocked by that as another arrow hit the deer instead.

"My arrow was deflected?" They ran out into the clearing, Alice examined the arrow. "I've seen this arrow before, but….where have I-"

"Well well, what do we have here?" A voice said from behind, the maiden eyes grew wide for she knew that voice all too well.

She stood up and turned around, confirming her suspicions when she saw them. "Black, White." The young girl sneered through clenched teeth.

Black and White Joker, childhood rivals of Alice and twins 17 years old, walked up to the brunette and white-haired man. Black smirked to them, "Alice, so good to see you, I'm surprised that you bother to show your face around here still." He said as he put his bow away.

"And who was the one who trounced you both in last year's competition? Oh wait, that was me." Alice said back, also putting her bow away.

"That was by luck, your idiot of a brother just got lucky when he brought back those kills. We all know how much of a stupid retard he is." The girl's hand tightened into a fist as the hunter continued on. "He lived in the forest for god sakes, a real animal if you ask-"

The sapphire-eyed girl couldn't take it anymore, "Stop talking about my brother like that! You asshole!" She pulled out her knife, ready to attack the man, but Peter caught her hand in mid motion.

"Alice! Stop this! This won't help anyone if you do this." The white rabbit slightly shouted as he took the knife out of her hand. He winced at the sight of it, but shook it off.

"Who's he? And what the f**k is with the rabbit ears?"

"Black, watch your language." White finally spoke up, but not for long for then the rabbit-eared man answered his twin's question.

"My name is Peter White, and who are you?"

"I'm Black and this is White, we're friends here with Alice." Black explained using hand gestures with it.

"As if, we're not friends, we never had and never will be." The huntress growled to them.

"Now don't be like that baby, you know we are, unless you wanted something more." Her face flushed up at his last statement, the andesine-eyed man's stare harden towards the zircon-eyed man.

"Black." White tried to get his twin to stop, but to no avail.

"Hell no! What the heck? !" The hunter just laughed at her reaction. "What are you doing here in the first place?" She calmed herself down enough to ask the question.

His laughter died down once he heard what the maiden asked, "What else? To practice for next weekend's hunting competition." Her eyebrow lifted in confusion.

"Next weekend? It's not summer, so why are they having it so early?"

"Because, the owners of this part of the forest wanted to do more competitions, so instead of doing it once a year. They decided to do three of them, to help their industry grow more to bring in more money." White explained, and then shrugged. "Financial problems I guess."

Alice nodded her head, getting where he was coming at, "Alright, I get it now." She answered after his explanation.

"There's no way your entering this year, your idiot of a brother can't help you this time. I was still shocked when they let girls in this." Black started off again. "Women shouldn't hunt; then again, you're not a women. You're just a snotty little girl, not even worth calling you a girl for that matter. I mean, who has ever heard of a girl hunting before?"

Small tears threatened to fall from her face at what the zircon-eyed man was talking about her. Peter though, held a hard glare as a sneered escaped his lip, he jumped at the hunter, knocking him to the ground. "Peter!" The huntress shrieked as she saw both men now rolling on the ground, Black now pinned the white rabbit to the floor.

"You little bastard, you stay out of this, this has got nothing to do with you." He pulled out his own knife, holding it rather close to the other man's face. "I wonder if those ears are real or not, want to test out my theory freak?"

The sight of the knife made Peter's eyes widen in fright as memories from before came rushing to his head.

'"_You freak!" A random person had shouted at the sight of Peter._

"_A monster! Keep him away from us!" Another screamed as others ran from him, leaving him in the streets. Peter's ears drooped once everyone was gone, he didn't understand why they ran, why they left him._

"_Die you abomination!" He turned at the shout, a man, who stood behind the white rabbit, held a knife up above his head.'_

"Peter!" Alice shouted again, White came behind Black as he held him back.

"Black! That's enough!" He pulled his twin off the other man, taking the knife out of his hand. The maiden rushed to the white-haired man's side, he was breathing hard as his eyes darted from side to side.

"Tch, what a coward, I wasn't actually going to cut those ears. Let's go White." Black took his knife back, putting it away before they both started to leave.

The huntress's fist tightened even more as she stood up, "Peter and I will trounce your sorry asses in next weekend's competition! You'll be begging for mercy once we're done with you!" She shouted at their retreating figures, the girl heard laughter coming off in the distance, and then it went quiet.

"Alice?" The brunette turned to the rabbit as he sat up, "Who exactly were they?" He asked his breathing slowed down now.

"They're known as the Jokers, the best tag team hunters in the country. A hunter must be equal in skill and stealth in order to catch their prey, but there are times where you alone can't get what you need. So hunters team up in order to get a bigger load, but you usually can't do that, it's hard to work with others when you usually work alone. With them though, they are equal in skill, stealth, and teamwork, they're twins for that matter. Working together had always come easy with them, making them the best here."

Walking over, the sapphire-eyed girl took his hand, helping him stand up, she then continued. "White is the intelligent one of the two, always planning out their moves, how to strike and when. He may seem quiet, but I think he is more dangerous out of the two. Black, however, is more reckless out of them both. Though he is great in strength and skill, his temper can get to him, making him hard to work with and keep under control. They're perfect for one another though, they can balance the other out in what they lack and what they have."

The white-haired man was still slightly confused after her explanation, "How do you know so much about them?" He asked, the maiden sighed.

"I used to train with them, when I was younger around the time I first started; they already had a few years of training on them so they were the best in the class. They also were loners, kept to themselves, I tried to be friends with them, but they just brushed me off." She then took his hand as she led him through the forest again.

"Where are we going?" The young man asked.

"We're going to start your training, to get you ready for next weekend's competition."

"What? I thought you were joking about that." The miss shook her head.

"No, I'm dead serious; Ace won't be able to help me this time. So I'm going to need your help Peter."

"But-"

"I won't lose to them, not them of all people, we're going to need to train all weekend and next week if we are going to have you somewhat ready." Alice cut him off, but Peter tried again.

"But Alice-"

"You can use my gear, it would be suspicious if I took Boris's, and I believe we should be fine with just my gear. We're not going to need that much gear anyway. Let's do this!" The huntress shouted as she pulled a worried white rabbit behind her.

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~**

**Pure: I think it's an interesting twist; I kind of wonder how he would react to being forced to hunt…this is going to get interesting.**

**Black: It's about time you put us in here!**

**Pure: Yeah, this is a perfect role for the both of you!**

**White: Really? Why am I shy though?**

**Pure: Your not shy, you're the intelligent one of the two, therefore not as reckless as Black.**

**Black: Thanks…I guess.**

**Pure: No problem! Would you do the honors!**

**White & Black: Please review!**

**Pure: More colors!**

**Zircon- red **

**Apatite- blue**

**Spinel- grey (Is Nightmare's eye color grey? That's what it looked like to me)**


	7. Let the Games Begin

**Pure: So much homework that it's not funny, it doesn't even feel like I'm on vacation -_- so sorry for late update.**

**Alice: Well it's good that you're continuing at all.**

**Pure: Eh, so anyway I had some fun ideas how the competition was going to turn out, there might be three parts to this so bear with me in this part. Hopefully this will turn out good disclaimer!**

**Gray: Pure doesn't own Joker/Clover/Heart no Kuni no Alice.**

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~**

"No Peter, you must be quieter. Any prey will jump at the first sound they hear and book it, losing your chance to get it." Alice instructed Peter, it was a day before the competition and the pair had trained all week for this day to come. The white rabbit looked up at the maiden, loosening his grip on the string of the bow he held.

"Alice, there is no way I can do this. Even with the training you have given me, I don't think it will help much." The snow white-haired man responded.

The brunette looked back at the man with pleading eyes, "But you can't let me lose to sadist like them!" She shouted as she grabbed his hands.

"Sadist?" The rabbit cocked his head to the side at the word, some which still escaped his vocabulary.

"They can still be cruel to animals! They have no respect for them, and they would surely gloat at my humiliation for not being able to enter this year!" The miss let his hands go as she ranted on about all the possible things that the Jokers could surely make fun of her for.

"I'll ask again, sadist?" The andesine-eyed man asked once more.

"Huh? Oh, sadist means being cruel for fun or just plain cruelty…and another reason, but rather not say." The huntress replied the rabbit-eared man nodded his head, understanding what she meant.

Peter sighed, knowing that he wouldn't be able to get out of this competition thing he was now in. "Ne, Alice?"

"Yeah?"

"Why do you want to beat them so badly? It's just a silly little game isn't it?" The young man asked as he stood up with the bow still in hand.

"It's not just a silly little competition; many hunters from around the world come for this! Even if the people who run this many seem like they're unpopular, but that's completely wrong! Though, I do have one theory for why they would come to something like this."

The young man tilted his head to the side once more, "And what would that be?" He asked.

"To scout around for young talent to be used as "pawns", in my way of seeing it anyhow, I witness it every year. Been asked a few times myself in the past."

"Really? What's the point in that?"

"Not so sure, I guess to show off or something. Anyway let's get back to work! The first part of the competition starts tomorrow and-"

"Alice!"

The sapphire-eyed girl was cut off when someone called her name; she turned to see that Boris had started to make his way out to the backyard. Alice pushed Peter into the bushes as a yelp escaped his lips from the sudden shove. The punk man came out and saw the girl standing there with a smile on her face, he looked at her weirdly, but decided to shake off his suspicious feeling he was having.

"Hey Boris! Do you need something?"

"I came out to tell you that Vivaldi is here and that she wanted to talk to you." The instructor explained to her.

"Alright, tell her I'll be in shortly!" He nodded before returning back to the house.

The young teen sighed; she looked over at the andesine-eyed man, seeing that he had crawled out from the bush. "Oops…sorry Peter, I didn't mean to shove you, but I couldn't let Boris see you." The maiden held her hand out to him.

He took it, allowing himself to be helped up, "Its fine, let's go back in before they wonder what's taking you so long." The white rabbit dusted off his clothing as he turned back in to a rabbit.

Smiling, the miss picked up the rabbit as they walked back inside, "Alice!" Vivaldi called out to her, waving back she then noticed the others who stood behind her. Blood, Elliot, and Gray were a while ways behind the other girl either smiling or having a somewhat bored expression on their face.

"Hey Vivaldi! What are you doing here?" The brunette asked as she came up to the group.

"We haven't seen you all week besides at school, so we wish to spend today with you." The amethyst-eyed girl demanded as she took the huntress's hands, which caused her to drop the albino rabbit.

"Ah! Sorry Peter!" Alice bent down and picked him up once again, "Are you ok?" She asked he looked at the girl as he licked her nose. A giggle escaped her lips when he did so.

"That is such a cute rabbit you have here Alice! What's its name?" The Queen asked as she touched the rabbit's ears.

"His name is Peter White! I found him two weeks ago during New Year's vacation when I went up to the cabin with Julius, Boris, and Ace!" The sapphire-eyed girl explained a huge grin on her face as she cuddled Peter closer to her.

"He is such a cutie! May we hold him?"

"Of course!" She handed him over to Vivaldi; the ravenette took him as she cradled Peter like a baby. Bring him close to her face; the rabbit licked her nose as well, which caused her to giggle also.

"Very cute indeed!"

"Vivaldi, you know we don't have much time here. We must get going soon." Blood said as he started to take the white rabbit out of her arms.

"But Blood!" She began to protest, but stopped when her brother shook his head.

"Sorry, but you know mom will-ouch!" The college student shouted, he looked down and saw that Peter had bit his hand.

"I'm sorry Blood! Peter usually isn't like this." The huntress said, seeing what had happen.

He smiled to her, "It's alright, and I think he's just not use to strangers yet." The raven-haired man said as he held the andesine-eyed rabbit up close to his face.

Peter then bit his nose, which caused the older man to drop him to the ground, "Owww! Son of a-" Elliot covered his mouth before he finished his statement, the albino rabbit hopped into Alice's arm, not at all fazed by what just happen.

"I….I'm…." The miss didn't know how to respond to the situation, so she just stood there, watching Gray and Elliot trying to calm Blood down. Vivaldi snickered a bit off to the side at what she saw.

"Don't worry about my brother Alice, he'll be fine." The amethyst-eyed girl said, coming next to her friend.

"You sure?"

"We're sure, but now we must get going since this event has happen. But you're giving us your whole next week since we know of the competition starting tomorrow. No excuses." The Queen sternly said a sweat drop formed at the back of the brunette's head.

"Of course Vivaldi." She replied as she waved to the group who took their leave, the huntress went up to her room.

Once in, Peter transformed back as he sat on the bed, "So what gear am I going to be using? Unless whoever is running the competition provides them for us, then there won't be much of a problem." He said breaking the awkward silence.

The sapphire-eyed girl was quiet; the rabbit-eared man stared back at her, confused. "Peter." She said after a moment of silence.

"Yeah?"

"Why did you bite Blood?" The maiden looked at him, quite bewildered herself.

"I thought he deserved it." He shrugged, gaze resting on her curtains.

"What made you think he did?"

"He didn't seem right I guess…something's wrong about that man." Peter voice darkened towards the end.

"What's wrong with him? And are you ok?" The albino man seemed to snap out of his sudden trance he was in.

Puzzled, he shook his head, "I'm fine; there is nothing to worry about. I think we should get ready, we're leaving soon aren't we?" The white rabbit gave her a smile before he got up and started to search for her bag.

"Y-Yeah…" Alice got up and started to help him as well, though she couldn't shake off the feeling that there was something wrong with him.

'_Are you really ok Peter?_' Sighing, the girl decided to leave it be, besides, she had a competition to get ready for.

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~**

"Thank you everyone for coming back again for another year of our hunting tournament!" An announcer said over the intercom, people from different ages and sex had gather in the forest. The morning mist covered most of the area as the place appeared to come alive to a new day.

Alice and Peter waited patiently for the announcer to continue, "Alice?" The andesine-eyed man asked, turning to look at her.

"Yeah Peter?" The brunette said as she looked up at the man, he wore a similar hunter's gear as everyone else did. Thankfully they were provided for this year, then in the previous years before.

"How is this going to be played out?"

"Basically there's three days of the tournament, each day a different event for the remaining pairs that go on to the next round. Each event is obviously different from the one before and they get harder as they go. Usually the last event is a scary one, some people even get hurt because of it, it's just that dangerous. Though no one will know what it is until the end, adding major suspense for everyone." The huntress explained to the snow white-haired man.

"That dangerous huh? Well, we're going to have to be extra careful when that comes." The young man said as he looked back to the stage that was set up.

"Peter?" He looked back down to his owner.

"Yes?"

"Thank you for doing this for me, I really appreciate it." She gave him a hug as she said this, a small blush came on the white rabbit's face; he cautiously hugged her back, not sure if it was ok to do so.

"You're welcome Alice; I'm glad that I could help." The miss pulled back, smiling up at him, since he was taller than her by an inch or so. She stood on the balls of her feet and gave him a quick peck on the cheek.

"Come on, let's get a closer look." The girl took his hand as she led him to the front of the huge crowd they stood in. The rabbit-eared man's face was flushed by the kiss she gave him, not knowing what to do; he just remained silent as she took him.

"Ladies and Gentlemen! The first event will begin shortly, but allow me to explain it to you first! This one is like a scavenger hunt if you will." Murmurs were heard all throughout the crowd. "All throughout this forest there are exactly 50 items that you will be able to find, we're not that cruel so you only need to find 1 out of the 50. There are checkpoints spread throughout the forest as well with clues to help you find what you need. Pretty easy don't you think?" People nodded their head in agreement, while others talked with their partners.

"Ha, if only it was." Everyone stopped talking and looked back to the stage. "If it was that easy, what fun would that bring? These items are not unique, they're everyday things you would find here, but they must be pretty much right or we won't give you the points. You have until the sun is at its peak in the sky, until 12 noon if you will, only 20 pairs out of the 100 that are here will go on to tomorrow's event by the end of the day. So good luck to you all! Please wait by the starting line until we give you the signal to go."

The crowd dispersed, heading to the starting line, "This should be easy, with my knowledge of this place and you've lived here for a while now. Right Peter?" Alice asked as they headed to the front.

"Yeah I have, I know these woods pretty well for the short time I've lived here. My hearing and smell could help also." Peter responded.

"We have nothing to lose then! We got this in the bag!" The maiden exclaimed the white rabbit gave her a smile at her enthusiasm. "As long as we-"

"You came?" A voice cut her off, the miss growled at the voice she heard; turning, they were faced with both Jokers.

"Oh? You came as well? I thought the humiliation from last year would teach you a lesson. But I guess some people are just that dense." The brunette shrugged, hands on hips.

"Like you're one to talk, you have no idea how dense you can be, ever since we were children were you dense to everything around you." Black said as he came a bit closer to the girl.

"What? ! I'm not dense! What right do you have to call me that? !" The sapphire-eyed girl came up closer to him as well, both a few feet away from the other.

The hunter laughed at her sudden spike in temper, "I own you, therefore I may call you whatever I please." He responded.

"Own me? ! You don't own me you little-"

"Hunters please get ready!" The announcer said over the intercom once more, cutting the huntress off, both returned to their partners, waiting to go.

"Can you keep up with me?" Alice asked Peter.

"I should be able to, hopefully you can with me." He gave her a playful smile, which she returned with a small giggle.

"Everyone! On my mark, get ready…get set…" A gun shot went off, signaling everyone to start.

People darted into the forest, the young miss ran pretty quickly with the andesine-eyed man right on her tail. They were a blur as they ran, soon enough they spot the first checkpoint, but many people were already there. Out of the corner of his eye, the rabbit saw another hidden from the other's view. "Over there." He said as he pointed off behind some trees.

Both the maiden and rabbit-eared man ran over to it and pulled out their clue, "I am seen, yet not seen. I am there, but in an instant I can be long gone." The brunette finished reading. "What could that mean?" They stood there as they thought what it could mean.

'_Something seen, yet not seen…light? No…that can't be it, I am there, but in an instant I can be long gone. Can it be a type of plant? But what plant would fit that clue? ...Maybe that could be it? …Wait! Yes it is!_' The snow white-haired man snapped his fingers, which caused the young girl to break out of her thoughts.

"Peter? Is something wrong?" He ignored her as he started to run, "Hey! Wait up!" She ran after him, they kept running for awhile until they reached the open field they trained in. "Peter! Why did you run off like that?" The huntress asked.

"Sorry, but I think I figured out the clue." The albino man responded as he began to search for the item.

"You did? What is it so I can help you look for it."

"'I'm seen yet not seen' I think its referring to a dandelion, you know, one of those seed headed one."

"What makes it seem that's it?" She asked as they both were on the ground look for one.

"Because, since it's partially white; if the light were to hit on it just right, you wouldn't be able to tell if it was there or not. 'I'm there, but in an instant I can be long gone.' That's referring to the seed heads, when the wind blows hard enough the seeds will be blown away. Therefore the, 'I'm there, but in an instant I can be long gone.'" The white rabbit clarified, continuing his search for the plant.

"That's amazing Peter! Great job on figuring that out so quickly." Alice congratulated him as she started her own search for the dandelion.

Both the young maiden and rabbit looked all around for the item they needed in order to move on. The sun climbed up in the skies, showing that time was very limited to all the pairs. Their search had to come to an end soon, and with no luck in finding what they needed, things weren't looking up for Alice and Peter.

"This is bad; we need to find at least one." The huntress said after another futile search.

"We can't give up yet, there has to be one somewhere." The andesine-eyed man said to her.

She sighed as she ran her hand through her hair, "But where? We looked all over this forest and not one have we found." The rabbit looked around their current spot, nothing but trees and an open field.

An area caught his eye though, he walked over to what seemed to be a ledge, "Alice, come look at this." The young man called her over.

"What is it?" Looking over, she too saw that it was a ledge, but what surprised them more was all the different plants that rested at the bottom. "That's new."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I've never seen this before. Then again, I haven't fully covered this whole forest." In the corner of her eye, she spotted what they were looking for. "There!" The sapphire-eyed girl pointed out, a group of dandelions hung on a ledge off the cliff they stood on.

"Good, now we need to get some and quickly return."

"I'll get it; I can probably climb walls better than you can."

"Alright, please be careful." The brunette gave him a reassuring smile before she began her descent. It didn't take long before she reached where the dandelions lay off the side of the cliff.

"I got some!" Alice called back up to Peter.

"Ok! Now come back up!" She nodded her head, making her way back up, the maiden lost her footing, which caused her to slip. "Alice!"

"Ahhh!" The girl screamed, the white rabbit was about to jump, but something caught the huntress before he could. He looked over to where she disappeared to, to see that she was now on top of the cliff.

"You're a pain you know that?" The maiden looked up to see Black staring down at her, she shrieked before getting out of his arms.

"What are you doing here? !" The miss shouted as she pointed a finger at him.

"Is that what you say to the person who just saved your life whore?" He responded standing up.

"I'm not a whore! And I didn't ask you to save my life!"

"You would have been dead then; a thank you would suffice, though I don't mind another payment for saving your life." The hunter smirked, which caused the huntress's face to turn a bright pink.

"As if! The day I thank you would be the day I admit I like you!"

His eyebrow rose in a sly full way, "Oh? So you like me now?" He said to her, she thought over what she said right now.

"What? …Wait! No! That's not what I-uhhh! You little-"The miss groaned as the zircon-eyed man laughed hard holding his sides in pain.

"We have to go now Black, there isn't much time." White said coming up to his twin, Black stopped his laughter as he look over at his brother.

"Yeah yeah I know, hey whore."

A vein popped out of her head. "I am not a-"

"Whatever, we don't have much time so you better run if you want to make it back in time. See ya…honey." He gave her a wink as both Jokers ran off.

Her blush returned as she shook her fist, "Oh that little…Peter! We're going!" She shouted as she ran after them. Peter watched what had just happen and silently followed her.

'_The feeling is back again, I don't know what it is, but it has come a few times before. I'm not angry or happy…sad? But it feels more than that._' Sighing he ran faster to catch up with his owner.

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~**

**Pure: I'm not so sure about the dandelion part, but I couldn't think of much that would still be challenging. So if that's not really true then I apologize for lack of creativity on that part.**

**Blood: That is cruel on my part.**

**Pure: I was dying of laughter when I wrote that; I just had to put that there!**

**Blood: Still cruel…**

**Pure: To bad it was hilarious! I also love teasing Alice with Black that's funny too!**

**Alice: Cruel also Pure…**

**Black: I'm ok with that.**

**Alice: Of course you are -_-"**

**Pure: Any way would you guys do the honors!**

**Blood, Alice&Black: Please review!**


	8. First Event, the second challange

**Pure: Again sorry for the late update, too much homework for its own good, so I hope you enjoy this one!**

**Alice: Yes please try for her sake, she really needs motivation.**

**Pure: So mean Alice! I don't need motivation!**

**Alice: Are you so sure about that?**

**Pure: *Pouts* meanie…**

**Vivaldi: Pure doesn't own Joker/Clover/Heart no Kuni no Alice.**

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~**

"That was too close for comfort, but apparently we're the only ones who got that clue right. Nice job Peter." Alice said as she took a seat on the ground, her breaths came out fast, they had just ran all the way back to the start with the answer to the riddle. Many were already there, making them one of the last to make it.

"I don't think I did that much, was the best I could think of." Peter replied a bit sheepishly as he took a seat next to her, short of breath as well.

She looked over at him, feeling a smile play on her lips, "Well glad you went with your intuition, it was right after all." The maiden laid back, her hands went behind her head as the girl's gaze rested on the clouds above.

"Are we suppose to wait for the next challenge to be announced?"

"Yup, all we can do for now…hey Peter." The huntress asked, turning her head so she could look up at him.

He looked back down at her, head tilted to the side, "Yeah?" The andesine-eyed man replied, slightly confused as to why his owner's tone just changed.

"I was wondering if-"

"Hey whore!" The brunette's eye twitched at the voice, she didn't even bother to look at who it came from.

Black came up to the pair, a devious look on his face, "Looks like you made it back in time, though I was surprised that no one got that riddle right. Some people are just not that bright I guess." He responded, looking down at them.

The miss didn't reply to him, knowing if she did just that, it would only bring disaster upon her and Peter. Instead she stood up as she mumbled to the white rabbit to follow; he caught on and got up also, following Alice. White and Black just watched the retreating duo make their way off somewhere.

"Do you honestly have to make enemies of those two? They could be valuable pawns later on." White deadpanned after they seemed out of earshot of themselves.

The hunter scoffed, his eye lazily looked back to his twin, "She's just fun to tease, gets her off her game doesn't it?" He replied, though his own answer didn't much reassure him.

"By the ways things are going, no, it's not working. This is only aggravating her even more, I suggest you stop trying this and focus more on the competition. You almost got the riddle wrong when it was so simple." The zircon-eyed teen explained his arms crossed over his chest as he glared at his brother.

"Well, look who's trying to act so tuff, stick to your planning White. It's what your good at and I'll stick at what I'm good at." Black spat back, teeth bared towards him as his lonesome eye narrowed before stalking off.

White sighed, '_His attitude is getting worse that's for sure, what got him so edgy is something I must figure out._' He thought, walking off to find his twin.

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~**

"Alice? Why did we walk off like that?" Peter asked they had just walked for about 30 yards until they stood in the training grounds once more.

The young maiden sighed, allowing herself to fall to the ground as she wrapped her arms around her knees. Thoughts ran through her mind at the current situation she was in, one she rather not be a part of. Peter was astonished when he saw that Alice was crying, well, what he believed to be crying anyway.

He didn't quite understand the process of it, "Alice are you alright? Please tell me you're alright." The snow white-haired man bent down so that he was now eye level with her, more tears flowed out. This caused the man to panic more, what was he suppose to do?

'_What am I-_'Peter mentally gasped, more memories of his past came back to him at the sight of Alice.

'"_Dear…please stop crying." A man said to his wife as he pat her back, the women was crying her heart out._

"_Why…why was I chosen to give birth to that…monstrosity?" The women said through choked sobs, her now lifted gaze rested on the young boy in front of her. _

_The boy looked back up at his mother, he was only one year old, but already look that of a 9 year old boy. It wasn't natural, what made it worse were the rabbit ears on his head, his snow white hair, and those bloody red eyes of his. "I want that thing out of here; I won't acknowledge it as my son." With that the women left the room, her sobs heard even when she was gone._

"_D…dad?" The boy finally spoke up as he watched his father walk over to him._

"_I'm sorry." The father brought his hand up and-_'

Peter snapped out of his memories, he quickly brought Alice into a tight embrace; this shocked the huntress as her tears ceased. "Please don't cry mom, please don't cry. I'll be good, I promise." He rambled on, stroking her hair to comfort her.

Alice was already confused by the sudden hug, now his rambling only made it worse. "Peter what-"

"Everyone! Please make your way back to the stage for your instructions on the second part of the 1 event!" The announcer said over the intercom once again, its sound carried throughout the forest. The young man stood up with the brunette's hand in his, they swiftly walked back to the start in a dead silence.

'_Why did Peter call me his mother? He was abandon at a young age wasn't he? I guess there are still a lot of things I don't know about him._' She thought staring up at the man who looked straight ahead, not once looking back at her.

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~**

"Glad to see everyone has made it back, well only those who will be moving on to this next round. So without further a due, let the second round commence!" The announcer shouted happily, or was it more to watch how the others will fair in this next challenge? "Alright! As you've noticed, others are coming around with hand cuffs to lock you and your partners hand and legs together so you can't separate. This part will test your agility and your teamwork."

Saying this, others had indeed begun to hand cuff the other survivors with their partners, everyone glanced at the cuffs, wondering what their purpose would be. "Now do you see that mountain over there?" He said as he pointed to the mountain behind him. "That is where you will be running to, up there is many different keys, only one though will unlock your own special cuffs. Once you have unlocked your cuffs, you will have to be locked arm in arm running back here for the win. The first 20 to make it back will move on the next challenge."

Murmurs rippled throughout the crowed once more, "Oh and we'll know whether or not you are locked arm in arm. There are cameras placed all over the forest, so no cheating people, when the gun sounds off, take off!" He finished as everyone moved, awkwardly, to the starting line.

"You ready for this Peter?" Alice tried saying to him, though not sure how much of that will work with him.

The white rabbit looked down at her, a huge grin on his face, "Of course! Hope you're ready yourself, this one is going to be tough." He replied, looking back at the forest before them. The sapphire-eyed girl mentally sighed; glad that Peter was back to his usually cheery self rather than the one he just was in.

Dead silence ran through as they waited, the gun shot went off, everyone started to run, but quite a few fell to the ground. "Follow my steps Peter; we must be in sync with our strides if we are going to get to the top fast enough." Both rapidly got in sync with the other, not before messing up themselves, hand in hand, they began to run.

Peter kept his long strides short for the smaller girl next to them, but even with that were they quite fast. Climbing, though, was another thing coming, "We have to climb together as best as we can, take the lead and I'll follow shortly behind." The andesine-eyed man said, seeing others come up behind them.

Taking the lead, the huntress climb the rocks with ease, with a struggling rabbit close behind. Reaching the top took most of their time, other competitors were already searching for their keys, and the Jokers were one of them.

Searching for the right key would take the pair ages to find, "We're never going to find it at this rate, there's got to be another way." Alice blurted out; panic was clear in her voice as the night sky. The albino man took a closer look at the keys, something then caught his eyes, pulling his owner along, as he went up to them.

His suspicions were right, on one of the key was a printed design of a lizard; Peter looked down at their own cuffs. Turning them all around as much as he could, he found a printed rabbit design on his own. "Look for the key with this print on it." The snow white-haired man instructed, showing what he meant.

Both began to look for the key with the printed rabbit design on it, the sun began to set, signaling them that time was almost up. "Found it!" The brunette pulled out a key with the rabbit print on it; she then unlocked their shackles as they fell to the ground. "Ha! In your face Black!" The maiden shouted to the older teen.

The hunter growled, seeing that they got out first, "Black." White said, just then their shackles fell off as well. The zircon-eye teen smirked back at the sapphire-eyed girl, he then locked arms with his brother, full sprint towards her.

"Ahh!" Locking arms with Peter, they shot down the mountain on a dirt road, "When did this get here? !" Alice exclaimed, but paid it no more attention when the Jokers shot pass them.

It was a race to the finish for both pairs, dodging trees, rocks and streams weren't much of a challenge for the determined leaders. The clearing came in to view, one last sprint came out of them both, but it in the end it was just a tie. "Ha! I…beat…you!" Black panted out, his breaths deep as was White's.

"As…if…you…hooker." Alice also panted out, she sat on the floor with the others, they all were the first to make it back, which surprised most of the others who thought it would have took a while to figure out the cuffs.

"Hooker? ! Like hell I'm a hooker! Slut!" The hunter spat back, the miss's eye twitched as she rotated her head around to face the other teen.

"Asshole!"

"Whore!"

"Pervert!"

"Bitch!"

"Sexual harassment!" She shouted, a finger pointed in his direction.

His eyebrow raised, "Sexual harassment? What the f**k does that have to do with this you f-"Black was then cut off, a hand place firmly over his mouth to prevent any more words from escaping.

"And we stop here." White said, Peter did the same with Alice just as the other twin did, both who's mouth were covered grunted as the ones who covered their mouths released them.

The white rabbit couldn't help though, to not wrap his arms around the huntress's shoulders, pulling her back into a hug. "P-Peter!" A blush rose on the girl's cheeks as she struggled to get out of his grip.

"Now that's sexual harassment." The hunter stated as he and his brother watched the brunette's fail attempts to escape the older man.

"At a low minor case is that sexual harassment, nothing big." The zircon-eyed teen answered, eye slightly narrowed.

Black looked over at his twin, his statement had stopped Alice's struggling for she and Peter also heard what he said. "You sneaky little bastard!" A laugh erupted from his mouth as an evil smile curled up on White's lips. "Why haven't you told me you were in to that stuff? I have this great movie digitally-"

"Would you please refrain? !" Both Jokers gazed over at the andesine-eyed man, seeing that his hands covered the huntress's ears.

"Why?" They said together, which frighten the young man out a bit.

"Because! Why would you germs talk about something so…tainted? !"

They looked at one another, "Did he just call us germs?" Black whispered first.

"Tainted?" White whispered next.

"Hey! What were you guys just talking about? ! Tell me!" Alice demanded to the men before her, both twins were still bewildered on the rabbit's choice of words for them, for since they couldn't quite answer her question.

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~**

"Has all the remaining contestants gathered around here?" The announcer looked around at the 20 pairs that had made it to the next event. "Alright! I shall explain the second event to you all! The second event starts tonight and will last all the way until Monday morning; this one is quite simple really. Just survive, that is all you need to do, you will only take what you have now in to the forest. Of course things are never easy; there will be some, "complications", all throughout this second event that shall test your survival skills. I wish you good luck this Saturday evening, you may start now!"

Everyone darted off again; night had come; only the stars and moon lit the path before the other players. Peter and Alice walked instead of run, still tired from their sprint earlier that day. "And I still never found out what you guys talked about." The sapphire-eyed girl grumbled her arms crossed over her chest.

"It's nothing that you need to know Alice, do you think we should camp out for the night? It's already late as it is." The albino man asked.

"Yeah, but let's find somewhere with more shelter and protection, who knows what these, "complications", they talked about are."

They walked for some time more until they came to a spot with a thick bundle of trees with several bushes that gave them cover. The maiden pulled out a tent as she and the white rabbit started to set up, the thought of being alone in a tent with Peter scared the girl a bit.

'_What's there to be afraid of? He wouldn't hurt me, and I'm sure he's not like Black who's a big pervert. But…then again…I still don't know much about Peter…_'

"Alice?" The snow white-haired man's voice snapped the girl out of her thoughts, bringing her back to reality.

She looked over at him, the tent was set up, and so she guessed that's why he called for her. They both went inside, taking off their weapons, but left most of the hunter's gear on just in case. "Peter?" The brunette asked after a while of silence, they had tried to get some rest, but Peter's past was bugging the hell out of Alice so much that she couldn't rest.

"Yeah?" He replied as he shifted around to face her, the miss did as well, both gazing back at the other. The rabbit's glasses were off which showed his face from behind the big glasses he wore.

A small blush came on the girl's cheeks, one she prayed the other man didn't noticed, "I um…was wondering about something…" Her voice came out as a low whisper, but he still picked it up.

"About what?"

"…I was wonder about your past, you called me your mother before, why did you call me that? I thought you were abandoned at a young age that you didn't remember your parents…well…I honestly didn't think you had parents…weren't you first born a rabbit?"

Pain shot through Peter's eyes as he looked away from his owner, his past was one thing he would rather not relive. Or retell for that matter, he wanted to bury it all in the past and let it stay there to rot. His gaze rested back on her face, her eyes stared back in to his own as the albino man noticed a concerned look in them, like she really cared for him.

'_But did she really care for me? What about that other man?_' His ears drooped at the thought.

"Peter?" She asked once again, now afraid that she asked too much of him, a sigh came from the rabbit-eared man.

"Alice…my past is-"A twig snapped, ears perked up, Peter was up on his feet.

The huntress sat up, "Peter what's-eep!" The young man pulled the girl up as he snaked an arm around her waist. He used his other hand to cover her mouth, and then they waited for another sound. Soon one came, now alerted; both she and the rabbit took their weapons in hand, arrow already loaded.

With no sound, the white rabbit motioned for the young miss to quietly follow him out; she nodded, listening to his orders. Luckily they left the tent unzipped; they got out of the tent only to be ambushed on the spot. Alice struggled to pull out her knife, but her attacker was much stronger than she was. Her arms twisted behind her back as she was knocked to the ground.

"Alice!" Peter shouted from awhile way off, fighting off the other attacker that was also there with them.

"Pe-"The girl's plea was cut off as her mind began to blank out, the last thing she heard was the albino man's cry out for her.

"Alice!"

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~**

**Pure: Done with this one! I did a better job on this event I believe…maybe…and we have seen more of Peter's past!**

**Alice: I knew there was something wrong with him at birth.**

**Peter: Why are you so cruel Alice my dear? !**

**Pure: I agree! Why are you so mean to Peter and me!**

**Alice: Because you're both idiots.**

**Pure&Peter: No we're not!**

**Alice: Idiots think alike.**

**Pure: *Grumbles* someone just say it already.**

**Julius: Please review.**


	9. Second Event, survive the wild

**Pure: I'm back with another of my excuses!**

**Alice: Is it a good one this time?**

**Pure: Probably not! But, I did just finish my two weeks of endless testing torture. And these are state test so a lot of studying on my part.**

**Alice: …I guess that was ok.**

**Pure: Kind of, but now I'll be able to update sooner. So without further a due disclaimer!**

**Dee&Dum: Pure Onee-chan doesn't own Joker/Clover/Heart no Kuni no Alice!**

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~**

"No Alice!" Peter shouted once more as he watched Alice be taken by the other person that ambushed them. He quickly knocked the other person, which was currently trying to knock him out as well, down to the ground. Taking out his bow, the young man loaded an arrow, which was now pulled back on the string ready to fire. The other person didn't get far with the out cold girl for he was then hit to the ground.

Seeing this confused the man, but decided to think about it another time. Quickly putting his weapon away, he ran over to the girl and scooped her into his arms. Andesine orbs glanced all around their surroundings, no movement was heard, as it seemed both the attacker and the attacked had vanished in to the night. Sighing with relief, Peter took his owner back to the tent where he still held her in his arms, afraid that he would lose her again.

"Alice…Alice can you hear me?" No answer came from Alice's lips, though her chest rose softly up and down. A smile came on his face when he concluded that she was now safe and out of harm's way. The young man ran his hand through his snow white hair, exhaustion was taking its toll on his body; especially in this form which he is not use to staying in for long periods of time.

He was tempted to return to his rabbit form, but he would be more vulnerable in that state. Peter took his glasses off and set them off to the side, lying back, he held the huntress close to his body. Her warmth came off her own body onto his own; his mind was at peace for the moment given to them. But soon enough his mind was clouded with doubt, what had happen to them before had been no accident, it was clearly planned out.

'_This must have been one of the complications the announcers were talking about. If we haven't heard them before hand we would surely have been knocked out of the tournament. But one thing is still troubling me…why would someone save Alice? Why keep more of the competition in? …Would they try and save her? But then why?_'

Too tired to even answer his own, every growing question, Peter allowed his eyelids to slide shut, letting sleep take over his weary state.

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~**

Light peered in through the tent, though not as hard, it was still enough to make Alice stir in her sleep. Sapphire orbs fluttered open as a groan came from her lips, her hand trailed up to her now throbbing head. '_I feel as though a truck had rammed straight into me._' She thought, the girl tried to sit up, but something was preventing her from doing so, or more like someone. She looked up to see that Peter had his arms wrapped around her waist, pulling her tight against his chest.

A blush came on her face at the close proximity, her orbs pursued up to the top of his head where his rabbit ears laid. Those seemingly soft ears, call out to the huntress, begging her to touch them. '_They look so soft…and cute…I wonder if they feel just as soft in his human form as in his rabbit form._' Her eyes seemed to sparkle at the thought, she brought her hand up close to his ears, conflicting with herself whether or not to touch them.

Peter's ear twitched, that one movement decided it for her, as Alice roughly grabbed it causing a yelp to escape from the young man's mouth. His eyes shot open to the pain that coursed throughout his sensitive ears. "They are really soft…" The girl murmured, her sapphire orbs widen even more when she rubbed her thumb over them, the pain was excruciating to the rabbit. His hand tried to pry his owner's hands off his own, but that only made her tighten her grip.

The pain was too much for him to handle, he flipped her over so that he loomed over her body, head low since she still held his ear. "Alice! Please let go of my ear!" Small tears appeared in the corner of his eyes as he stared down at her, and just as he said that, her grip released. They stayed in that position for a while more, though Peter couldn't see her face well, he could make out its shape. He slowly brought his hand up to softly caress her cheek; her skin was smooth under his touch.

Gently rubbing his thumb over the skin, the young man bent down and kissed her forehead, he couldn't explain why he just did what he did, but it felt right. Soon Peter felt as though he was missing something. He grabbed his glasses and put them on, now clearly seeing what was wrong. Alice held a darker blush on her face, her eyes showed as though she was scared and clearly astonished. His mind clicked as a blush of his own came on, the young man got off the huntress, allowing her room to sit up.

It was quiet between the two; you could literally hear a pin drop at the awkward silence that surrounded them. Sapphire orbs met andesine ones for a brief second until both turned away. "We should probably get some breakfast." The huntress finally broke the silence, standing up while saying so.

"Right." Was the man's immediate response as he followed out right behind her, the cool misty air covered the forest; it gave the place a sort of eerie look to it.

"Stop." Alice abruptly said halting her movements, a shuffling sound was made, the huntress motion for the rabbit to take out his bow. He did right when a deer came into the clearing, "Quickly shoot it down before it notices us." She whispered, her orbs not leaving the fresh prey.

Peter shifted his gaze back to the deer; he gulped as he brought the bow up to be pointed towards the prey. The man hoped he didn't particularly have to kill any living creature, but it was too good to be true. His hand shook, '_Calm down, just quickly kill it so it doesn't have to endure any pain._' The thought ran through his head over and over again. Peter's grip hardened around the sting and arrow, he waited, with great swiftness, the arrow flew through the air to hit its target.

But the arrow hit the deer's hind leg instead of the heart which the man was hoping it would hit. It started to limp away with the arrow still lodged in place, giving it a hard time to move properly. Alice took out her bow and shot with ease at its heart, she watched it fall to the ground, its body now still. Both she and Peter walked over to the deer, the girl took out the arrows, handing one back to the man.

"You got to be more precise Peter, you'll never kill any prey unless your aim is perfect, but I can't blame you. This is your first time killing an actual living animal and you only got a week worth of lessons." A smile came on as she picked up the animal. "Why don't you look for some firewood and I'll set things up back at camp."

"Alright." He gave a small smile walking off to find some firewood, sapphire orbs sadden as a long sigh escaped the girl's mouth.

"I can't blame him for feeling like this, must be hard to kill other like him…to an extent that is." Alice wished that he didn't have to do things he didn't want to do, but this was pretty important to her and she was grateful that he agreed to help. She couldn't ask more of him, memories from earlier came flooding back in to her mind as her blush returned with them.

'_Why did he kiss my forehead like that? His eyes were filled with love…love as in an owner and pet kind of love? Well…he's not particularly a pet anymore, but then what love did he show in his eyes?_' These questions swarmed all around her head, her feet brought her unconsciously back to their camp they set up the night before.

Deciding to forget her current dilemmas, the huntress just focused on her task at hand, preparing them some breakfast. She took out her knife and began to skin the deer of its pelt, then propped it up on some sticks she found so it would hang above the fire. An hour seemed to pass when Peter finally returned with the wood in hand to see that Alice had already set up everything for his arrival.

"Great, your back, for a second there I thought I would have to go out and find you." She replied, a hint of tease in her voice, this reassured the man for the whole time he was searching he kept feeling that he made her angry.

"Sorry, took a while to find some big ones." He replied a smile etched on his face.

"Don't worry about it; can you pack up the tent? Once we're done eating we need to get a move on."

"Of course Alice." Both did what they needed to do, smoke rose into the air from the newly assembled fire.

It would take some time for the food to actually be ready to eat, so the girl decided to learn more about her companion to pass the time. "So Peter, were you called something else besides Peter? I would hate if I've been calling you by something else this whole entire time."

He shook his head to her, "No, I haven't. This is the first time anyone has given me a name, so you may still call me Peter if you wish." The rabbit answered as he stared back at the fire with interest, it intrigued him how it did what it did.

"I see, then I'm glad…you do like the name right?"

"Yes I do, I like it very much."

"That's also good, so you've lived in the forest your whole life after you were…cast off?" She cautiously said she still believed this to be a touchy subject to him, since the way he reacted before when she first asked him.

A muffled laugh managed to come from his lips, "And why the sudden interest in my life Alice?" Peter smiled, that look in his eyes came back once again.

"Well, I thought we could get to know one another better, this competition doesn't only bring others from around the world. It also helps strengthen each other's bonds…so I thought we could do just that." Her voice grew small at the end, tinted pink were her cheeks from the sudden embarrassment that came to her.

He wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling the girl close to his chest, the blush shot up tenfold to the unexpected contact. "All you had to do was ask Alice! I'd gladly tell you about my interests in life!" Peter happily said his child like behavior returning once more, the blush disappeared to be replaced with a small sweet smile. Alice sure enjoyed his cute childish side; it made him appear more alive.

They talked for hours more even after their food was all gone, walking through the forest as they did so, though the girl didn't learn much about his past, where he came from or how he is what he is. She was fine with that, because he is what he is now and that should be all that matters. The sun was high in the sky, showing that it was noon, twelve more hours to last until the final event was to take place. Alice's sapphire orbs glanced up to look upon Peter's own features, his snow white hair moved softly with every step he took, his andesine orbs took in their surroundings with great interest as if they were discovering something new.

Her eyes trailed down to their intertwined hands, how it got to that she didn't know, but it felt a lot different than when she held Blood's hand. His felt hard and cold, like it was forced to hold her own, yet Peter's felt warm and soft…lovingly you could say if saw that way. "Alice?" His voice snapped her out of her current daydreaming; she looked back up at him.

"Yeah? Did you say something?"

"Not for the most part, you seemed far away though, is something on your mind?" She quickly waved her free hand over her face as a nervous laugh erupted from her throat.

"No no, I was just thinking about…what Julius, Boris, and Ace could be doing! They're staying at the cabin while this whole thing is playing out so I was just worrying about their well being." Peter raised an eyebrow to her, debating on whether or not to believe her.

"I'm sure they're fine, this is almost over so we can go home once it's done."

She was going to reply, but a rustling sound stop all other noises. They grew quiet; a low growl was heard from behind the two, turning, both were met with a fully grown bear. "Oh this is not good." Alice whispered, out of the man's hand, she held her hands up as she slowly moved backwards away from the bear. "We have to be really quiet, we don't want to intimidate him any more then what it could be."

Following her lead, they began to move backwards, slowly and quietly as they possible could go. "They honestly allow real live bears in this competition?" Andesine orbs stared back in to sapphire ones.

"Wouldn't be the first time they did something like this." The girl gave a doubtful shrug, continuing on with what they were doing. Laughter was then heard all around the area they occupied, knowing that laugh, the huntress turned up towards the trees to see both Black and White Joker staring down at them.

"Nice going whore." Black said, smirking down to the helpless pair below.

"It's not like we asked for this!" She yelled whispered, still being wary of the bear right in front of them.

"Oh no, you were just being retards to not even notice the bear beforehand."

Alice gritted her teeth, "Why are you here?" She managed to say without her anger spiking.

"Why else? To watch you humiliate yourself and to get both you and your partner kicked out-"An arrow hit the bark on the tree close to his face, which caused him to stop talking mid sentence.

"You bastard! Get your ass down here so I can kill you myself!" Her anger burst, she loaded another arrow, as Peter tried to calm her down, Black started to laugh once more.

"3…2…1…" White counted down, once he finished the bear let out a loud growl, drowning out all the other noise. The pair below looked back at the bear as it seemed to glare at them. "You might want to run now." He deadpanned as the animal charged at the two.

"I'll get you back for this Black!" The girl called back as she and the rabbit booked it with the bear close behind. They ran turning this way and that to try and loose the bear, but luck was not on their side, they ran in to 2 more bears. "Why does mother nature hate us?" She said as the 3 bears surrounded her and Peter as they stood back to back.

"They wouldn't allow things to go this far, that could lead to our deaths…could they?" The huntress shook her head.

"Wouldn't be the first time." Was all she could reply with, in honest truth she didn't know if they would allow it to go this far. It was never heard of; then again, it could have been covered up for all they know.

Alice was truly scared now, she didn't want to die yet, and there are still many things she wanted to experience first. Some things to clear up, a hand grabbed onto her own, it gave her a reassuring squeeze. "We can get out of this Alice, you just have to believe we can and we will." Peter's voice was soothing and strong, it was one she grew to trust and believe was right.

Her confidence came back to her as a smile came once more to her face; she squeezed his hand back as she took out her knife. "Let's do this; we're not out of this thing yet."

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~**

"So you made it back alive? I was sure hoping that that the bear got to you." Black Joker slyly said, the second event had just ended and only four teams had made it on to the final round of the tournament. The Monday morning was a hot one, not like the other cooler days, Alice and Peter stood before them with some tattered clothing, the fight with the bears took its toll on their clothing.

Little injures were found on their bodies, but blood still manage to get on them. Sapphire orbs glared back at zircon ones, they then scanned over the rest of his body. "I could say the same for you, went for an early dip in the lake?" Both Jokers' clothes stuck to them and were still newly wet from head to toe.

"It's not so bad, not from the look of those little panties of yours." A smirk formed on the man's lips as a blush covered her whole face. He started laughing when she tried to cover herself, that's when she figured it out that he was messing with her.

"You little-"

"Will the remaining 4 pairs please make their way back to the stage!" The announcer called over the intercom, the girl groaned as she stomped away from a laughing Black. All 4 pairs made their way over to the stage where the final event will be explained to then determine the winner of the tournament once completed.

"This is supposed to be the worse of them all right?" Peter asked once they arrived, his andesine orbs showed distress and anticipation.

She gave him a small smile as she grabbed his hand, it trembled a bit in hers, but soon relaxed. "There's nothing to worry about, we can do this alright?" She was getting use to holding the rabbit's hand; it gave the huntress her own reassurance when did so.

He nodded his head; the announcer then reappeared on the stage. "You 4 are the remaining participants in this wonderful tournament of ours, so now I'll explain the final event to you all. We originally were going to have one winner, but we've decided on two pairs will now win this. You have now been given a number and your other team will also have to same as your own to show you will be working together."

Alice and Peter received a number 1; they looked over and saw that the Jokers also have a number 1. "Just kill me now, before I decide to kill him first." The girl glared daggers at Black as he sent them back, things were going to get difficult for them all.

"Now that you know who you will be working with, your final event will be a simple hunting game. Those who kill the most under the time limit will win."

"But…" The girl mumbled, from years of experience it was never this easy.

"But there is specifically one animal you must kill, and this one creature will determine the winner despite how many they kill. And that creature is-"A screen popped up as footage of a white rabbit appeared on it. "-The rare white rabbit that has been spotted here in this forest!"

The color from Peter's face drained at the sight, Alice glanced up at him, seeing that he was in a state of shock. Her sapphire orbs returned back to the screen as she realized what that now meant for her and Peter. It meant that they needed to kill him, the rare white rabbit that others had hardly ever seen in their whole lives.

"No!"

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~**

**Pure: Now done! I finally added some Alice and Peter fluff! Though it's not a lot it shows that he is building up his confidence around Alice enough that he kissed her forehead.**

**Alice&Peter: …**

**Pure: Oh right the end…well…I thought it would be another interesting twist, but fear not! I would never even think of killing my dear white rabbit! Just another thing to look forward to as to how they will get out of this situation!**

**Alice&Peter: …**

**Pure: Also in a state of shock I see hmmm…well what do you think, should the Jokers be first to find out about Peter's secret or should someone else? Tell me what you think!**

**Elliot: Please review!**


	10. Final Event, Kill the White Rabbit

**Pure: These should be coming up a bit faster, but school hates me now. So it might take longer then I wanted it to be.**

**Alice: Is Peter going to die?**

**Peter: Alice my darling you don't mean that!**

**Pure: Yeah Alice! So cruel! I would never kill Peter; he's too cute for that!**

**Alice: Y-Yeah…**

**Pure: On with the disclaimer!**

**Blood: Pure doesn't own Joker/Clover/Heart no Kuni no Alice.**

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~**

All eyes rested on Alice, her sudden outburst clearly caught everyone's attention, the announcer blinked as he just stared at the girl. "What do you mean by no, Miss…?" He looked down at his clipboard, then back up at her. "Alice Liddell?" Her eyes darted from side to side, seeing the remaining participants' stare bore in to her.

"Uhhh…I-I mean by that why do we have to kill the white rabbit? ! It's a rare creature isn't it? S-So it's an endanger species…right?" The words that left her mouth weren't so reassuring to her or the others around her.

"It was spotted on this land, therefore belongs to the owner of this forest. No more further questions! You have until sundown to complete this last event! Once you hear the gun shoot off in exactly 10 minutes, begin!" Everyone left to make the final preparations; Peter looked down at the huntress, a sad look appeared on his face.

"Hey, what was all that about?" Black said as he and White made their way over to their new partners.

She glanced back up at them, seeing that she was looking at the ground a moment ago, "Why not? We must show respect for our prey, have you already forgotten what we learned all those years ago?" Her voice came out small and slightly timid, she was afraid, afraid that she would lose a close friend.

The way her voice came out, how she was acting, confused both men before her. An uncommon sight they usually never see. "Of course we haven't forgotten, but why the sudden interest in this type of animal?" White replied Peter remained quiet, not so sure on how to help in the given situation.

Alice slightly bit her bottom lip, quickly thinking things over, but decided against her current thoughts. "Just that it was an endanger species, that's all, these people can be cruel to the animals here sometime." She managed to say in a more confident tone, but was still hardly good enough for both Jokers. None of the less, they let it side, guessing they won't get much more out of her.

Black came over to the girl and ruffled her hair, "Try not to worry about that, worrying is beneath you. That and its plain creepy to see you all depressed you dope." He then flicked her nose, lightly, but still hard enough to make her yelp.

Alice was going to reply, but the hunter started to walk away. "But it is true Alice, quite a rare sight to see with you. Do try and not make it a regular habit of yours." White said, following his twin, both leaving her to just stare.

"Come find us before the 10 minutes are up!" Black hollered back once more. The huntress watched them disappear into the trees; she gave a heavy sigh, wondering if she can now keep up with their weird mood swings. One minute they seemed to despise her, the next all friendly like.

It was rather interesting to see at most though, _'Were they always like that?' _She thought, but found that she couldn't remember. Looking up, the girl saw that Peter had been fairly quiet since it was announced that he was to be hunted. _'But as long as he stays in his human form then there's nothing to worry about right?' _

Of course, the huntress did not know of the young man's limits, and he was surely reaching them. Alice then poked the man; he flinched at the little sudden pain in his side. "Cheer up also Peter; nothing is going to happen to you." A small smile came on her lips, the white rabbit returned it, but it looked more force than anything else.

"Yeah….I know." The girl suspected something was a mist, though she couldn't figure out what. Letting it slide, both started to find the Jokers since their time was almost up and the final event was about to begin.

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~**

A deer lay on the forest floor, as blood oozing out of its motionless body; its eyes stared off in to what seemed like empty space. "Nice catch Black." White commented his twin, moving to collect the fallen prey.

The teen smiled as he put his bow away, "Too easy actually, it was just sitting there, really helpless out in the open like it was." He turned to face Alice. "The next one is yours."

She nodded her head. "Okay."

"This is the 8th one right? Good progress so far and it's barely noon. I'm going to go put this with the rest of our catches." With that, White left to go off to their stash of fallen prey.

Black rolled his eye before looking back at the other two, "So after this next one, the Peter dude will catch us our 10th one." Peter looked over at the sound of his name, eyes growing dreary from the lack of energy.

"Alright…" He managed to say in a relatively normal tone, but wasn't too convincing. The hunter eyed him carefully, as if trying to see what the rabbit's problem was; not finding one he gave a sigh.

"Let's try to stay focus; the other team out here with us could be planning to do something in order for us to lose. And I'd be surprised if they didn't, mostly nobody here plays by the rules sad to say. So keep your guard up all the time."

"We don't need to hear that from you, I already know that from years of experience. But he's right; we need to keep a look out for things out of the ordinary." Alice responded.

Walking over, Black roughly, yet gently, ruffled the girl's hair again. "Thanks for some credit short stuff." The huntress's cheeks held a tint of pink on them as she shooed the older teen's hand away from her head. He gave a soft chuckle, looking around; he saw that his twin hadn't returned yet. "Where the hell could White be? I'll be right back….Yo White!"

The hunter then disappeared behind some trees to find his brother, alone; Alice looked back over at Peter who had been silent most of the time. Actually…all morning to be exact if one thought about it long enough. "Hey Peter?" She asked him, walking over to his shaking form, seeing this got her scared, she lightly touched him to gain his attention. "Are you ok?"

He shook his head, "No Alice…I'm not." Just as he said that, a sudden pain came to his chest. The young man fell to his knees as he clenched his shirt, the girl was getting even more frighten, falling down next to him; she tied to see what was wrong.

"Peter! Peter what's wrong? !" The rabbit looked up; he gave her the best smile he could muster up though it still appeared force.

"I'm sorry…Alice…but I can't hold out any longer. I've already reached my limit…staying in this form for long periods of time has drained me completely…since I haven't been in this form in a long time. I must return to my rabbit form."

"What? But you can't!" Peter gave her one more smile before a light engulf him. Alice shielded her eyes, opening them; she saw that he had returned to his rabbit form. She picked him up, and saw that he was now asleep. "Peter…I guess it was more my fault now that you're like this. I shouldn't have pushed you so hard, but I didn't know. Or at least not bothered to notice."

The girl was tempted to cry, cry all of her problems out, but what help would that do? Sucking it up, she wiped some tears that manage to fall from her eyes, before the Jokers returned. "Alice! Peter dude! We need to get a move on!" Black said as he and White reappeared, they saw the huntress sitting on the floor, back facing them. This confused them, but slowly made their way over to her.

Getting up, Alice turned to face them, zircon orbs widen at what she held in her hands. "It's the White Rabbit!" Black shouted a finger pointed at the rabbit's sleeping figure.

"Did you kill it already?" White asked his eye still big as it looked back up at the girl then back at the creature.

"No! I would never kill him! He is my best friend!" The girl snapped back at the two, her stare hardened towards them.

White and Black blinked, looked at each other, then back at the girl who shouted at them. "Right…okay…" They said together, silence ran between the three of them, either not sure on how to break it.

"Anyway…what happen to the Peter guy? We need to get a move on." Black finally said his gaze never left the rabbit's form.

Mouth slightly open, going to answer him, but couldn't for she manage to dodge an arrow that passed by her. A small shriek escaped instead as she landed on the floor, clutching the rabbit closer to her body.

"Man, I missed." A voice said from up in the trees.

The three of them looked up to where the voice came from; the other group was looking down at them, watching to see what they would do next. Black pulled out his bow as White helped Alice up.

"Is something wrong?" The one that shot the arrow asked a smirked seemed to form on his lips.

"What do you think you're doing? ! You could have hit her instead you bastard!" The harsher hunter was more than pissed, no, he was frustrated. This whole competition was frustrating to him, he didn't know why, but it was. And this guy wasn't making it any better for him.

"But I didn't, I was merely going after the main prize. Killing that rabbit will assure our victory."

"You will do no such thing! I won't allow you to kill him!" The huntress screamed she blinked back a few tears, calming herself down before she lost control.

"And why's that? You were perfectly fine doing so in the past, this creature here is no different from the rest." He was going to say more, but an arrow that landed on the tree bark fairly close to his face made him think otherwise.

The Joker brothers were not amused by this other party messing with them, and for reasons unknown to even them were they mad that the opposing party was going to hurt Alice to just win some stupid tournament. Both brothers looked at one another; a silent agreement rang through them as they gave the other a nod.

"Let's go." White whispered to the girl, he dragged her along as they broke into a sprint.

Before the other group could respond, Black shot multiple arrows their way, careful not to hit any of them, but enough to get them focused. He didn't wait for their next move for he took off after his twin; with the other group right on his tail. The hunter caught a glimpse of the pair about a few yards ahead of him; he swiftly caught up and fell into stride with them.

"We need to lose them." Black said as the threesome looked for anyway to hide from the upcoming party that was getting closer to them as they spoke.

Knowing the terrain, Alice got out of White's grip, leading them off somewhere. "This way!" She called back, ducking into what looked like a cave covered over with some moss like curtains.

The remaining two ducked in with her, it was dark in the cave, no light shone in through the entrance or were there any cracks in the ceiling to provide that afternoon glow. They were quiet, waiting to catch any slight movement on the outside. When it was deemed safe, they all let out a sigh of relief, glad, for the most part, that was over with.

"It's dark in here, does anyone have a light?" The girl asked her protective hold still on the sleeping rabbit.

A flicker of light soon illuminates the dark cave they were in, though small, it provided enough so they could see the other's face. "The best I've got, we left all of our stuff back where we got ambushed, so it seemed anyway." Black snorted, his eye looked dully at the wall next to them, his hand held a small lighter in which the light came from.

White noticed a stick laying on the floor right beside him; he picked it up as he motion for his twin to give him the lighter. Black handed him the lighter, curiously observing what his brother had in mind. Alice was as well, watching with great interest as to what the other twin was going to do with it. The young teen held the stick away from him, the lighter in front of his mouth, he blew at it, which caused the flame to fan out and hit the stick. The stick then caught on fire, allowing more light in to the cave.

"Really White? You still remember all of that?" Black commented, a small half smirk on his lips, as he lazily lies back against the wall, arms crossed over his chest.

"Of course, it comes in handy, and it makes for great entertainment for others." White replied his orb trailed over to Alice's awestruck gaze that rested on the stick still in his hands.

She noticed that he was staring at her, staring at the stick, she shifted her gaze away as a small tint of pink came on her cheeks. "Anyway…I think we should stay in here until the close is clear." She finally said, looking back down at Peter to make sure he was okay.

"Fine, but we would like some answers first." Black deadpanned, now sitting up, but with his arms still crossed over his chest.

"What would that be exactly?"

"First, why care so much about this rabbit, and second, what the hell happen to that Peter guy?"

That caught her off guard a bit, though she should have guessed that they would want some answers eventually. "I care so much about him is because he is my friend. I found him here in this forest a few weeks before this tournament, he is special, and I don't want any harm to come to him."

Both Jokers waited for her to answer the other question, she bit her bottom lip, trying to find some way to explain Peter's absences. '_This is bad, how am I going to explain why Peter is not here? I don't want anyone finding out yet…but they will keep asking until I give them something…what though?' _

After what appeared like ages, the huntress drew up all her courage and carefully chose her words. "Once you left I sent Peter off to see if he could try and find where we were. In all honestly I didn't think we even knew where we were, and if we could find some familiar ground, we would be able to get back quicker. I'm guessing that Peter got lost or is looking for us now." She held her breath, waiting for their response to her lie; it wasn't obvious as she thought it was believable. Silence once more, it was agonizing, to her, but then one finally spoke up.

"I see…and are you sure that's what had happen to him?" White asked his eye watched her attentively.

"Yes I'm sure." It got quiet again; sweat fell down the back of her neck, once more waiting for their reaction.

Black grunted, which broke the silence. "Man, what bad timing, just when we actually needed the dude."

"It is true, his assistance would have indeed helped our situation, but we can make do without him this time." White gave the girl a reassuring smile.

Which in turned, she released a small sigh. "What are we going to do now?"

"We're going to need a plan, I'm sure those assholes are going to still be looking for the rabbit. And if you're that sure on protecting the thing, then we're going to need one." The harsher hunter stated his legs crossed Indian style.

"Do either of you have one?"

"I do actually." White commented.

"Of course you would, always one step ahead, aren't you White?" The young teen answered, rolling his eyes towards his brother.

"Why wouldn't I?"

"Right…anyway, the plan would have to be quick, dusk could come anytime now. We still need to find Peter, collect all of our prey, and avoid the douche bags."

"Calm yourself Black, don't want to lose any little brain cells you posses left."

His eye twitched at that last statement, turning, Black faced his brother. "What was that? Don't forget who can beat you to a pulp."

"Ah, what I lack in strength, I make up for with intelligence."

"That's it!" Black pounced on White sending them both to the ground, already struggling with one another.

Alice softly set Peter down as she made her way over to the twins. "Hey! Cool it you two! We need a plan here so stop it!" She soon broke them up.

The harsher hunter scoffed, while the nicer one sighed. "Right, well here is what I had in mind."

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~**

Alice took a deep breath, with the plan now explained it was to be put in to motion, she stepped out of the cave. Dusk was approaching and quite fast at that, they needed to hurry. With Peter in hand, she bolted from the cave and ran in any direction, hoping to find some familiar land mark along the way.

"What's wrong Alice? Did you think you could get away that easily with the prize?"

Her head whipped to the sound of the voice, the group was before her, all starting to surround her. She gave them a smirk, dropping the white bag that held a rock in it, which was starting to hurt her now after she just ran with it in hand.

"What prize?"

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~**

**Pure: Finally got it done! Though I wish they would be able to come up faster, but due to my hectic schedule and school hating me, they will come up a lot slower than originally intended. But next month when school is over, they will surely come up much faster! **

**And made this event in to two parts, kind of, the first part of the next chapter will be the end of the tournament. Then everyone can go home finally!**

**Alice: Poo…Peter didn't die…**

**Pure: You are so mean to Peter Alice-chan!**

**Alice: Meh…**

**Pure: You're lucky I can't do anything bad like I did with the Jokers!**

**Alice: Wait what?**

**Gray: Please review.**


	11. Game over, A secret revealed

**Pure: Wow…long awaited update…even I don't have a good enough reason why it took me this long.**

**Alice: Took you long enough!**

**Pure: Yeah…so sorry about that, now that school is over things should come up faster…hopefully.**

**Alice: Hopefully? ! What do you mean hopefully? ! They better get out faster!**

**Pure: Wahhh Alice! So mean! I'm trying here!**

**Alice: Try harder!**

**Vivaldi: Pure doesn't own Joker/Clover/Heart no Kuni no Alice.**

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~**

The other group stared at the rock that had fell out of the bag that Alice was once holding. All quite fooled by what she had planned from the beginning for them.

"What? !" the supposed leader yelled when he saw the rock fall. "How did you—"

Alice threw the white bag at his face, which blocked his line of sight. She ran towards him as she slid under between his legs, she then hooked her arms around his legs. This caused him to fall forward while he struggled to remove the bag from his face.

"Mike! Mike are you alright?" A girl asked as she helped the boy up off the ground.

"Yeah I'm fine Emily," he said as he took the bag off his face. "where did that brat go? Find her and that white rabbit!"

Laughter was heard from behind the group, they all turned to find where it could have come from.

"Up here!"

They all looked up to see the huntress sitting on a tree branch as she stared down at them.

"You guys are so slow, and to think I was worried about something like you four." She smirked down at them as she tried to cover up her laugh, but wasn't able to. Alice burst out laughing; she clutched her stomach to stop the pain as much as she could.

"Bitch! Tell us where the hell that rabbit is!" Mike yelled, he took a step forward, but was stopped by a loud snapping like sound that came from behind him.

"Hey! I only have the right to call her bitch!"

Alice ceased her laughing as she shot a glare down towards Black. "Hey! You can't call me that either!" she yelled back at him.

Black ignored her; a smirk came on his face, he saw that Mike turned towards him and his brother.

"What the…how did you—"Another snapping sound stopped him mid sentence, he turned to see who had cause that sound.

"Finally, I have caught your attention, I was afraid that I would have to hit you the next time." White smiled as he held a whip in his hand, he snapped it close to Mike's feet, in return caused the boy to jump back. He did it a couple of times at the other members as well to see them all jumping out of the way of the whip. "Dance douche bags dance."

"Man White, what else did you decide to keep?" the hunter asked his twin, he tried his best to hold back his laugh, but it was proving difficult to do so.

"This was my favorite thing out of the whole experience." He responded to his brother, he allowed the whip to hit the ground once more, which in turn scared the other group more.

"Well you're right," Black pulled out his own whip and snapped it towards the ground. "this was the most fun we ever had back there. Even I kept my own."

Both hunters flung their whips at the forest floor and watched the group before them scurry around in fear of being hit.

This went on for quite some time as Mike and his group tried to find ways to stop the Joker brothers from using their whips.

"Are you really men? Stop hiding behind some lousily weapons and fight us like—"

"I want to try!" shouted Alice as she landed on Mike's back. "Please you guys!"

"Mike!" Emily screamed at the sight.

The huntress looked up at her, and then back down at what she landed on. "Oh…oops, my bad, didn't see you when I landed."

Black burst out laughing as one of his arms wrapped around his waist and the other slapped his knee to try and stop it. "I knew you were fat, but I didn't think so much as to knock down the poor guy!" he managed to say through his fits of laughter.

"What? !" the girl sprang back up on her feet as she walked over to the young man. "I'm not fat! You idiotic ass take that back!"

As his laughter died down, Black flicked her forehead, and then flung his whip once more at the ground so the others couldn't escape. "I rather not to a little girl like you."

"Jerk…" she mumbled as she rubbed her forehead. "But no I was serious before, can I try it?"

White came over to the pair as he wrapped an arm around his brother's shoulders. "You may try Alice, but it's a lot harder than it looks." He hands her his whip.

"It can't be that hard."

The other group looked warily at the girl, still too afraid to try and run, but now even more if she doesn't know how to use it.

Alice gripped the whip in hand, turned it this way and that, and then tried to snap it at the ground. But it hit the leader instead on the side of his cheek as a big welt appeared on it. She stared at the mark wide eyed, mouth opened bigger as she continued to watch a girl scrambling around to help the boy she hit.

"I told you it was harder than it looks." White commented as the three watched the scene before them.

"B-But…I-I didn't mean to h-hit him t-that hard!" the huntress said, she quickly looked back and forth from the group and the hunters next to her.

"You couldn't expect more, with how you were holding it; things were bound to end badly."

Mike glared back at the girl; he wiped some of the blood that began to come out of his mouth from the hit. "You bitch, you're going to—"he stopped when he felt something cold on his neck.

"I dare you to call her bitch one more time." Black growled as his grip tightened around the knife he held to Mike's neck.

"Black, drop the knife, I don't need your help with this." said Alice, she handed White his whip back as she walked over to the two.

Emily and the other pair watched off towards the side, too afraid to try and budge from their spot.

The brunette then hit the leader on the head as well as the hunter, which caused them both to hold their heads in pain.

"Why the hell did you hit me too?" he complained rubbing his head.

"Because, you got in to others business when you shouldn't have."

"You're basically saying that you don't want any help?"

"Wow, great job figuring that out jerk, and just after I said it too!"

"Now now, let's not get in to an argument here, we still have others to worry about at the moment." White came up to the pair, and then placed a hand on his brother's shoulder to prevent him from losing his nerve.

Mike walked over to his group as he held his cheek where the welt seemed to get bigger by the minute. "Don't think this is over, far from it!" he turned with the others in tow as they ran from the clearing.

Footsteps faded as they got farther away from the three to the point where they couldn't hear the others anymore.

"About time that is whole thing wrapped up." said Black as he put his whip away.

"With that over can you tell me where you put him?" Alice asked them, she looked around to try and see where Peter could be hiding.

"Over here." White led her over to a tree and pushed some of the bushes away to reveal Peter curled up fast asleep.

The huntress bent down and picked up the sleeping rabbit. "He has been here this whole entire time? I thought you would hide him somewhere else."

Black shrugged then crossed his arms over his chest. "Would have been too much of a hassle, besides, this was much easier right? Now our next problem is where the hell is that Peter guy? I swear if he doesn't show up soon…"

White rolled his eye as he ignored his brother and looked back at Alice. "You must really care for him don't you?"

"I do, he is one of my close friends." The girl noticed that the rabbit in her hands started to move around, clearly awake now.

"What are you going to do with him?"

"I'm just going to set him free, there isn't much more I can do. And Black, stop with the ranting, I'm sure Peter is on his way to find us." She looked down at the rabbit and smiled before she set him down.

The white rabbit hopped away from them.

"You better be right, he has been gone basically all day." He grumbled to himself, hands dropped to his side as he looked around for the man.

"I was sure I heard voices over here…ouch, stinking bushes." Peter mumbled as he stepped out through some bushes and trees, he looked over to see the group. "There you guys are! I've been looking all over the place for you."

"Where were you? !" the hunter shouted as zircon orb glared in to andesine ones.

The young adult nervously laughed, afraid of what the hunter would do to him. "When I got back to the camp site you three were nowhere to be found. So I was roaming around to find you."

"Hopeless…utterly hopeless…we got to go, we're burning day light." With that Black walked off, leaving the others behind.

"I'll try to calm him, meet us back at the camp site." White responded as he quickly followed his twin.

Alice and Peter stood in downright silence, both unsure of how to break it. Time passed, both still stood where they were as they heard the small trickling of a nearby stream. The trees swayed lightly in the breeze that had come, things were getting uncomfortable and one of them had to break it.

"Ummm…" the huntress tried first, she rubbed her arm to help figure out her next words. "Sorry about all of this, I didn't know that you were getting tired while in that form and with all the trouble I've caused you throughout this competition." She waited for his response, eyes glued to the ground so she couldn't see his expression.

"There is nothing to be sorry for, this is actually a good thing, because the longer I am in this form. The more I get use to it, therefore the longer amount of time I can stay like this. Don't worry about it okay?" as he said this, he walked over and patted her head like a parent would do to a child.

She smiled to him, and then turned around. "We better catch up; Black is going to have a fit if we don't get back soon."

"You're right about that, let's go then."

The two ran to catch up with the Joker brothers, as the day went by the two groups haven't run into the other which caused fewer problems for them both. Day turned to night concluding that the game was over and was now time to tally up the scores.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm proud to announce that the competition is now over!" the announcer shouted through his megaphone, others came around to tally up the scores from both teams.

Alice was exhausted from the days hunting; they had to work even harder due to the time being wasted from the quarrel. "Glad that this is all over, now I can go home and just sleep."

"I'll second you on that; this has been one hectic tournament." Black answered as he took a seat on the ground next to her.

"At least we made it out of this alive and not badly injured. With that being said one person wasn't as…lucky as the rest of us." White chuckled at his statement; he watched one of the other members of the other team being medically helped.

"I said I was sorry…" the huntress mumbled as she drew circles in the dirt.

"What was that about anyway?" Peter asked, curious about the welt on one of the other team member's face.

Black smirked as he put both hands behind his head. "Alice here hit the leader across the face with White's whip."

"How did that—"

"The scores have been tallied up! And now to announce our winners!" the announcer cut the man off as they all stood up. "Since no one was able to kill the white rabbit, we went by the number of kills and their quality."

Everyone waited in silence, no one dared to make a move for if they did it would affect the scoring.

"And the winners are…the Joker brothers, Alice, and Peter! Who had ended with a number of twelve kills!"

The group shouted and cheered as the others applauded to admit their defeat. The groups high fived one another as Alice pulled everyone into a group hug.

"We did it!" the huntress exclaimed to them, she then released them from her hug as she smiled to them.

"All that work paid off in the end." White responded next, he then smiled back at the girl.

They walked up to each receive a medal and a trophy, which was held up by both Black and Alice. Once the cheers died down everyone began their trip for home, seeing that it was already late.

"You guys keep the trophy, as a token for our new friendship I hope." The girl handed them the trophy.

Black held his hand up to her. "Nah you keep it, something to remember us by." he answered her with a small smile of his own.

"Awww~ is Blacky-kins getting all soft now?" White asked as he poked his twin's cheek.

"Watch it White, or it will be your head next."

Alice watched the two brothers bicker back and forth with one another, she giggled at the sight before grabbing Peter's hand. "We are still friends though right? !"

The two brothers looked over to see her shout at them for she was already leaving with Peter in tow. "Of course you dope!" Black yelled back a smirk on his lips.

"Hope to see you soon Alice!" White yelled over to her as he waved goodbye to her retreating figure.

She waved back to them as she and the young adult headed back to the cabin to get ready for the trip home.

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~**

"You can set it there on that counter Alice." Nightmare instructed to the girl as he pointed to where she could place the rolls of bandages.

A few days passed since the competition and Alice is back home ready to work on her education. She continued to help out Nightmare, because of how she liked to be around the older male since he was nice to talk with. And seeing that his and Gowland's quarrels are always funny to watch doesn't hurt either.

"I'm glad to see that you have won last weekend, and with the Joker brothers no less. I thought you guys despised one another."

The brunette shrugged, she placed more bottles of antiseptic in the cabin before turning around to face the man. "It was like that at first, but towards the end when we were forced to work together. We kind of…I don't know…became friends. Not one hundred percent sure how it happened, but it did."

"Everything is good then?"

"Yeah, in the end everything is." She smiled as she stretched her arms above her head, which indicated that she was tired already.

"Nightmare I need to talk with you about—"Gowland stopped mid sentence, when he had entered the room he was going to discuss the problem that regarded Alice. But once he entered, she was there standing right in the room.

The nurse looked over at the principal, eye narrowed as he already figured out what he was going to say. "You may continue Sir Gowland, Alice here might want to know what you're going to say anyway."

"What do I want to know?" she asked, already curious about what they were going on about.

Mary walked over to Nightmare and whispered in to his ear. "Are you sure about this?"

"She has to know eventually."

Alice stared at both men, her curiosity increased by each minute as they waited in silence.

The principal sighed, he ran a hand through his auburn hair to try and think of a way to tell her of what they knew. "Not of a what, more of who you want to know."

"And who would that be?" the brunette asked, she took a seat in the chair that Nightmare was currently in since this was going to be longer than expected.

"Do you know of Blood Dupre's…history?" the nurse tried to word effectively so that the girl wouldn't take it the wrong way.

"No…but what does he have to do with anything?"

"We are only looking out for your safety Alice, and by saying that we want you to try and keep your distance from him." Gowland suggested, but came out more of a warning than anything else.

The brunette pouted at the men's statement, she then crossed her arms over her chest. "Why must I do that? It's not like I'm in danger or anything, Vivaldi is also my best friend yet she is his sister."

"Look Alice we didn't want to tell you, but since you're not listening to our reason we have no choice. Blood was a very intelligent student here, almost at the top of the school, but we knew that it was more of a cover up." Nightmare started as he leaned on the counter top, eye studied her figure.

"What do you mean?"

"What he means is that Blood is not who he says he is, we believe his sister doesn't know either. That he is part of a Mafia group that his father once owned." Mary finished as he also watched her form.

Alice stared wide eyed at the men in front of her; she didn't want to believe what they were telling her. It couldn't be true, but what reason would they have to lie to her? But a Mafia group? And own by his father no less, but then… "Why was he allowed to stay?"

"Because he was such a high honor student, the bored wouldn't see any reason. Even if we did tell them they probably wouldn't have believed us." Nightmare answered.

"How do you know then?"

"I caught him selling other students drugs and gambling on school grounds. Couldn't do more then give him detention for what he was doing." Gowland replied after.

The nurse walked over and placed a hand on the girl's shoulder. "So you see why we want you to be careful, we don't want you to get mixed up in that kind of stuff Alice. You're a sweet, caring girl, and we hate to see you get hurt. But don't tell anyone about this; it would be best if you kept it a secret."

She nodded; her head looked down at the ground, lost in her thoughts.

"Good, now head straight home sweetie, don't want you to be walking alone in the dark." The principal good-heartily patted her back as both men led her out of the school.

Alice waved goodbye to them before she turned around to head home, but it wasn't too long before she was tackled into a hug.

"There you are Alice! We have been looking everywhere for you!" Vivaldi pulls away to look at Alice's face as a smile of her own appears on her lips.

"Hey Vivaldi, sorry, I was helping Nightmare reorganize."

"You took your sweet time, but now you must go out shopping with us tomorrow after school."

The girl nervously laughed. "What for? I don't need anything at the moment."

"To get you ready for your date with our brother of course!"

Alice's stomach dropped at the mention of Blood's name, she couldn't tell her best friend of what she just learned of her brother. But she certainly didn't want to go on a date with the man so soon after what she learned.

"It's true Onee-chan!" Dee said as he came up and hooked on her left arm.

"And we are going to help you, though we rather you go out with us then that old man." Dum said next as he latched onto her other arm.

"But as long as Onee-chan is happy we're happy!" they said together.

Vivaldi came up and unlatched the twin boys from her best friend's arms. "So it's settled! We will take you out tomorrow; no excuses so make sure you're free. We will see you then Alice!" she grabbed the twins and walked off to make sure they wouldn't follow Alice.

The huntress sighed; she began her long walk home as her thoughts were clouded with the dread of going on a date with Blood.

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~**

"I'm exhausted! I could sleep for a month, how about you Peter?" Alice laid out on her bed, her arms tucked behind her head, her thoughts continued to drift back to what Vivaldi had said earlier today. As well as what Nightmare and Gowland had told her of Blood, things were going to get difficult, no doubt about that.

Peter shrugged; he took a seat at the edge of her bed. "I'm pretty good actually, slept all morning so I think I should be okay for the time being."

"That's good, and you're sure your okay?"

"Yes Alice, I told you before that this would benefit me. The longer I'm like this the longer time I can hold this form. So in the end even if it leaves me tired I get helped."

The brunette sat up as she crossed her legs to sit Indian style with her hands clasped together. "Then that will be our next task! To make sure you can stay in that form for longer periods of time."

He lightly chuckled at her determination; he waved his hand over his face. "You don't need to do that Alice that will come as time passes. I don't want to get you in trouble."

"Nonsense! I want to help you," she thought over a few things, and then she thought of something that could help them both. "how about you come with me and my friends to the mall tomorrow?"

"What? No I couldn't—"

"Of course you can! This way you can stay in your form longer, I could get you some fitting clothes, and that you can get more sociable! I don't want you to turn out like Julius who stays in his office 24/7 and only comes out when necessary."

Peter smiled while his ears twitched a bit. "Alright Alice, I'll come if you want me to. Now I can't wait to see what a mall is!"

Alice watched how the young man got excited over the littlest of things, how he let his curiosity get the best of him. The way his carefree laughter could brighten up the mood, and his smile, that smile that could make her heart…Her faced flushed a bright red color as she stopped her train of thought.

'_Was I actually thinking that just now? I shouldn't be thinking that! Peter is one of my best friends! …Right?'_

"Alice you're blushing, are you afraid that I will embarrass you tomorrow in front of your friends?"

The girl snapped out of her thoughts, she looked back over at Peter to see that he observed her with a worry expression on his face. "What? No! That's not it at all!" she nervously laughed, hands up to prove her point.

"You okay Alice? Could it be the other thing you haven't explained to me about?"

"Uhh…n-no…it's not that either. Don't worry about it okay? My mind was wandering for awhile there so I wasn't thinking clearly."

He stared at her, and then gave a heavy sigh. "I hope you can talk to me when things are upsetting you Alice. I want to help you anyway I can."

"And I appreciate that you're worrying about me, I promise to tell you whatever bugs me alright." The brunette smiled as she placed a hand over his.

Peter returned the gesture with a smile of his own, soon his eyes light up as he turned to face her. "So tell me about this mall, what is it like?"

She giggled at his enthusiasm to learn new things, she liked that about him, and how he would love to figure out things. "Well, a mall is—"

"Alice I need to discuss with you about—"Julius had started to say as he opened her door, but was also cut off.

Ace flung his arm around Julius's shoulders, his smile ever growing on his lips. "Julius! I need you to-whoa…now that's something you don't see every day!" he looked over at the bed where Alice and Peter were sitting on.

The pair stared at the others; they weren't expecting them home for another few more hours at the most.

"Why did you guys stop?" Boris poked his head through the door and saw what the other two saw. "Oh…now I see why…"

They all stared at one another, none which knew how to respond to the sudden news, what could they do in the first place?

Julius crossed his arms over his chest as he glared back at Alice; his stare alone was enough to show that he wanted answers and fast.

'_Oh I'm so screwed…'_

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~**

**Pure: Now I'm finally done! I hope this makes up for the long wait I put everyone through. I promise this won't happen again!**

**Alice: It better not…**

**Pure: Hehe…anyway, so now we learned a bit more of Blood though it is cliché adding in the Mafia bit. Well I did bring back in the whips for the Jokers and did hint of their past from I'm sure you could guess what. So I guess it wasn't all too bad.**

**Alice: Now Peter has been found out.**

**Pure: Yup! Next chapter we will find out the others reactions and get ready for another forced date with Blood!**

**White & Black: Please review! **


	12. Outcome of some Mistakes

**Pure: I'll admit that I have been neglecting my stories a lot, but I did go to the Circus lately. **

**Alice: That's random…and sad, but another excuse for the late update?**

**Pure: Sure…let's go with that.**

**White: Did you have fun Pure?**

**Pure: Yup! But yours would have probably been better!**

**White: Thank you for the complement Pure.**

**Pure: Why don't you both do the disclamer?**

**Alice & White: Pure doesn't own Joker/Clover/Heart no Kuni no Alice.**

**Pure: And any stores that might pop up, I don't own those either!**

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~**

Alice and Peter sat quietly at the dining room table, Julius, Ace, and Boris sat across from them. They all were quiet; no one dared to speak a word, or at least had the courage to do so with a fuming Julius in the room.

"I'm waiting Alice." Julius said his glare still locked on the girl.

Said girl fidgeted around in her seat, eyes darted all around the room. "Umm…well…you see it's a…really long story." She said softly as her eyes made contact with his.

"Enlighten me." He deadpanned arms crossed over his chest.

"Sir please don't be angry with her, this was more my fault." Peter cut in before the huntress could answer.

The veterinarian turned his glare on the man who spoke up. "I don't want to hear a word from you."

"I mean no disrespect, but—"

"Silence." He stated as he pointed a finger at him, he then turned back to Alice, his arm back to his side. "Explain to me why you would keep this a secret from us."

The girl gazed back at the older man, she tighten her hands into fists under the table to help calm some nerves. "I never meant to keep this a secret…I just didn't think you were ready to handle this…"

"Not handle this?" Julius stood up which made him knock over his chair. "There has been a man living in your room for the past month. And you would think that we couldn't handle it? Did you think we wouldn't find out sooner or later?" his voice began to rise as he talked, but not enough to the point he was screaming.

"What was she suppose to do? Tell you that her rabbit could transform in to a man? Being that you're a veterinarian you would have dissected me if I'm not mistaken." Peter once more spoke up.

"I help treat your…kind, I am no mad scientist. But I hate the fact that you had lied to me Alice. Were we not trust worthy enough for you to tell us?"

"But like I said before she didn't have a choice, it had nothing to do with the fact that she couldn't trust you. She just couldn't tell you."

Julius glared at Peter, he lowered his stare and sighed as he sat back down in his chair-probably set back up by Boris or Ace. He then pinched the top of his nose.

Ace leaned over towards the man, his gaze still on the two in front of him. "You know he does have a point, what was she suppose to do?"

"Shut up Ace."

The brunet nervously laughed as he backed away. "Shutting up now."

"Julius, Alice was doing no harm; you do have the tendencies to over react now and then. Which could have been a reason why she might not have trusted you or us with this issue." Boris also said his arm on the back of the man's chair.

"You shut up as well Boris, or you will be finding a new home."

The teacher quietly backed away as well, his hands up to show his surrender.

"Julius…" Alice started; she waited for him to look at her before continuing. "I never wanted to lie to you, but Peter here is…" she gripped his hand under the table, but something felt wrong with the next word she wanted to say. "my friend. And I care deeply about him; it's not that I didn't think you couldn't handle this or that I didn't trust you. I believe you could have and I do trust you whole heartedly, but with…what happen in the past. Nothing wrong has happened, and I don't want him to leave, so please Julius."

The veterinarian looked at both she and Peter, then his hard gaze rested back on the rabbit. "How old are you?"

"I'm turning three soon I believe."

"What? !" Ace and Boris shouted both leaning over the table.

Thinking, the older man took his glasses off and said. "So you're around twenty to twenty-five?"

"I believe so yes." Peter answered truthfully.

"And you were born with the rabbit ears, snow white hair, and crimson red eyes?"

He quickly thought it over before nodding. "Yes I was, but do to that I was treated as a…outcast…even by my own parents." He mumbled the last part.

Julius raised an eyebrow, but didn't question him further on the subject. "So you can change at will between this form and the rabbit one? And have you been living in the forest your whole life?"

"Yes I can, it's easier now since I've had the practice. And no I haven't."

"Then where were you living before you went to the forest?"

Peter gaze trailed down to his hands- now out of Alice's-then back up. "I…don't remember much from my past…I still had the mind of a child…so things are rather hazy."

Alice looked at him. _'Something tells me that Peter isn't telling the whole truth…but why would he lie?' _she thought to herself.

Julius nodded as he closed his eyes to think over the situation at hand_. 'Having another man in the house would be troublesome. The expensive would go up, not to mention he doesn't have a decent education. Alice already likes him, so it would be difficult to convince her to get rid of him. I still hate the thought that she couldn't trust us still, even after everything we have done…' _

"Come on Julius, there is no harm in this." Boris said his arm back on the chair.

"Boris is right, what's one more person? You make quite a bit of money, we're even helping out!" Ace replied backing up the punk man.

"Please Julius?" Alice said again.

"Julius."

"Julius!"

"Julius…?"

Said man's eye twitched as he abruptly stood up, knocking his chair over yet again. "Enough!" it got quiet, he squeezed his nose again and sighed. "I need some fresh air." With that he left the room and headed to the back yard.

The veterinarian stared at the night sky, the stars shined brightly next to the moon that shined the brightest. Julius thought of the one promise he made to Alice's parents before they had died…

"_Julius…" Alice's father said his head turned to glance up at the navy-blue haired man who held his hand. "Please…will you take care of our daughter for us?"_

"_Of course I will." He stated softly._

"_Please…all we want is what's best for her." The mother said weakly next to the father._

"_Can you promise us that she will be happy? That she will live her life to the fullest, even after we're gone?"_

_The man stayed quiet, it was like that for a few minutes, until he spoke up. "I promise I'll do my best."_

_Alice's father smiled, his eyes closed as his hand went limp in Julius's._

"Ashton you fool…" he whispered to himself, eyes still gazed upward.

"Ummm…"

Julius turned around to see Alice standing behind him with a cup in her hands.

"I made you some coffee, just the way you like it a tablespoon of milk, a teaspoon of sugar, and stirred slowly." She held out the cup to him as she watched him take it. "I'm sorry Julius, I really am, but I never meant any harm I'm sure you know that. I'll take full responsibility for him; I didn't want to tell you because I also wanted you to be proud of me. I wanted to show you I wasn't that helpless girl all those years ago. So please don't hate me for what I have decided, I'll make sure everything is—"She was cut off when he pulled her into a tight hug.

"I don't hate you Alice, and I forgive you. Just don't make this a habit."

They stood there in complete silence, minutes past as they stood there. The huntress was glad that things were better again, but she was beginning to lose feeling in her shoulders.

"Julius…can you let go of me…you're squeezing me too hard."

The man noticed this as well and let her go as a tiny blush came on his cheeks. He coughed to gain her attention. "Come on." He took a sip of his coffee as they both went back inside the house.

The others waited in the dining room for their return, soon the two came in, and they turned to face them, their curiosity as to what happened grew as they stood silently.

Peter locked his gaze with Julius's, then watched Alice walk over to him and stand at his side.

"If you are going to stay there are some rules. You must be able to work in order to help support this household that will be your new home…Unlike this freeloader here."

"Hey! I work my share for this house!" Boris protested.

"You will run errands when asked and will listen to what I say. You aren't allowed to sleep in Alice's room…I'll only make an acceptation if you stay in your rabbit form. But if I find out that you have changed to your human form I will skin you alive myself. Do I make myself clear?"

The white rabbit nodded rather quickly. "Yes sir."

"Wait! How come Mr. Peter here can sleep in Alice's room? I want to sleep with her too!" Ace complained which made Alice's cheeks burn up.

"Ace!"

"Yeah me too! Sleep over in Alice's room!" Boris high-fived Ace as the two rushed off upstairs.

"Get back here you two!" the brunette chased after the two in attempted to stop their ridicules plans.

Julius and Peter were left all alone, the veterinarian once more sighed as he turned around, his back now facing the younger man. "I got a call earlier today saying that Alice was dating a Blood Dupre. Do you know anything about this?"

"Yes…why is there something wrong?"

He shook his head. "Nothing much…can you keep an eye on her when I'm not around?"

"Of course."

"Good, your room is on the second floor down the hall and the first door on the left. Have a good night Peter White." Julius walked off towards his office to pull an all nighters again.

"…And to you as well…Julius." Peter called back, a crash was heard upstairs. "That can't be good." He quickly turned around and ran upstairs.

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~**

"I can't believe that you all slept in my room." Alice grumbled to herself as she and Peter walked to the mall the following day.

"Isn't that what you would consider a sleep over though?" Peter asked his head tilted to the side a bit.

The huntress scoffed. "I won't acknowledge that as one, in the end they were the ones who made me late for school. Ace didn't bother to wake me up again so here I was, running to school and almost arriving late. But anyway has Julius made you do anything yet?"

"He just made me run some small errand to what I believe to be a grocery store?"

"Boris went with you right?"

Peter lightly laughed as he nodded his head. "Of course, but now I know what it is for the next time."

Alice smiled as she put her hands behind her head. "Next time we can go together, and thanks for picking me up after school and walking with me to the mall. Vivaldi wasn't here today and neither were the twins. I wonder why that was."

"They have their reasons, nothing to worry about right?"

"Yeah you're right, besides, I'll warn you now that since I'm going to buy you some clothes to be careful with Vivaldi. I love the girl, she is my best friend and all, but when it comes to clothes. A living hell."

The young man lifted an eyebrow at her last statement. "And what makes you think that? It can't be all that bad."

She shook her head and shutter at the thought. "You have no idea, trust me the last time I went shopping with her I couldn't sleep a wink. I kept thinking she was going to hunt me down while I slept."

"Right…of course…"

"We're here."

In front of them was a building five stories high with smaller buildings around the main one, an arch way led to the entrance of it. Peter stared at the building in awe; he had never seen such a building quite that big before.

"It's so big…" he mumbled eyes still staring at the thing.

"Yup, come on lets go." Alice walked on a head doing so she noticed a few figures waving at her in the distance.

"Alice!" they shouted to her.

The huntress smiled when she knew who they were. "Vivaldi! Dee! Dum!" she ran over to them and was brought into a hug by her best friend.

"It's about time you came Alice." Said a slightly furious Vivaldi, she now had her hands on her hips after she released Alice from their hug.

Said girl nervously laughed as she held her hands up. "Sorry about that, school just ended not too long ago. And since I can't drive, I had to walk here, speaking of school where were you guys today?"

"We stayed home so that we can get ready for today!"

Alice looked over at the twins.

"Just didn't want to go today." They said to her, both shrugging then they pointed over to the other side of Vivaldi. "And the mousey boy came too."

"I-I'm not a mouse!" Pierce protested to both boys.

The girl laughed at the young boy's reaction. "No wonder you left early today Pierce." out of the corner of her eye she saw Peter come up behind her. "I don't think I properly introduce you guys with him."

They all turned their attention on the man that stood behind Alice when she spoke.

"Guys this is Peter White, he is an assistant for Julius I'm sure you remember from before. He is also tagging along with us for the day. And since he will be living with us from now on we need to get him some new clothes." The huntress saw the ravenette's eyes lit up at the idea. "Peter, these are my friends, Vivaldi, Pierce, Dee and Dum."

"It's nice to meet you all, and I'm sorry for last time. That was very rude of me." The white rabbit gave a small smile to the group in front of him.

Vivaldi stepped forward and took Alice's hands in hers. "Now that that is over, how about we start shopping?"

"Yeah Onee-san!" Dee said as he latched onto her right arm.

"Let's go!" Dum latched onto her other arm as the three dragged her towards the building.

Peter lightly laughed, watching the four walk off towards the building. He looked over and saw that one of them had stayed with him. "And you must be…Pierce?"

Said boy nodded. "Yeah, and you're a friend of Alice?"

"Yes I am. We better catch up to the others before we get lost."

Pierce gave another nod as they both ran off to catch up with the others.

As this was going on, the others walked through the mall, debating on which store to go in. Vivaldi and the twins argued on which store would suit Alice best as said girl just stood in the background.

"Shut up!" she yelled which caused the others to grow silent. "Thank you, now can we just pick a store and go in it."

"Then let's go into _Forever 21_!" Vivaldi suggested as she clasped her hands together.

"No. Any other store we can try?"

"_Victoria Secrets_?"

The huntress cringed back in fear. "Defiantly not! I was talking about…I don't know, _Nordstrom_, _TJ Max_, _Ross_ for crying out loud!"

"_Hollister_!"

Alice groaned, slapping her forehead.

"How about we go to _Nordstrom _like Onee-san suggested?" Dee said once more latching onto her right arm.

"Yeah! The old hag is paying anyway." Dum responded latching onto her left arm.

Vivaldi's eye twitched at Dum's last statement, but was able to control herself before speaking. "What a _wonderful_ idea, why don't we go now?"

"Alright! Let's go Onee-san!" both twins shouted as they dragged Alice along.

"I…believe…we missed them…again." Peter said as he took deep breaths from the running he and Pierce were doing.

"Wonderful…" Pierce managed to say.

The young man nervously laughed. "We better go again." with that they started to run once more.

The ravenette ran off in search of some clothes for the huntress to try on when the store had come into her view.

Alice, Dee, and Dum all sat down next to the dressing rooms to wait for Vivaldi's return. They talked among themselves about trivial things and how the date should be canceled.

"We…finally…caught up with…you guys…" Peter said with his hands on his knees.

"Glad you guys could join us, I was wondering what happen to the both of you." The girl looked over at the both of them; they were completely out of breath! "And what exactly happen to the both of you?"

"Long…story…" the young man slowed his breathing down before he straightened up. "So what are you doing?"

She was going to answer, but Vivaldi beat her to it. "We found some clothes! Come on Alice, time for you to try some of these on!" the ravenette shouted as she pushed the brunette into the dressing room.

"Don't you need some clothes as well Peter-san?" Pierce asked looking up at the older man.

"Yeah…why?"

"I'll go look for some for you!"

"Wait!" but the boy already ran off, Peter sighed yet gave a small smile.

"What's this? !" Alice exclaimed through the dressing room. "Vivaldi what did you get me? !"

Said girl walked up to the door the huntress was behind. "We got you some of the latest trends! Come out so we can see you!"

"Like hell I am! If you want to see it, why don't you come in here with me? !"

"Alright!"

"Wait I didn't mean it literally!" but the ravenette went in anyway.

Peter laughed once more at the girl's refusal at the last minute. _'Then you should probably have not suggested it.' _He thought as a light smile came on his lips.

Both twins watched the older man, trying to figure him out. "You like Onee-san don't you?" they asked him.

"Huh?" he looked over at the two boys that were sitting down. "You're…" Peter pointed to the red-eyed one. "Dee," then pointed to the blue-eyed one. "And Dum?"

"Actually I'm Dee." The azure-eyed one corrected.

"And I'm Dum." The crimson-eyed one also corrected.

"Oh, forgive me."

They shrugged and asked their questioned again. "Do you like Onee-san?"

The white rabbit blinked, and then nodded his head. "Of course I like her, she's my friend."

"That's not what we meant." Dee deadpanned arms crossed over his chest.

"We meant do you like her more than a friend?" Dum questioned hands on his knees.

He thought for a while, but he couldn't quite understand what they were trying to ask him. Like her more than a friend? What could there be other than a friend? His head hurt a bit before he shook it. "I don't understand, I like her, she is my friend. What more could there be?"

"You must really be in denial then to not notice anything." They said hands behind their heads.

"In denial? What does that mean?"

"Huh? !" Dee's eyes widened.

"You don't know what in denial means? !" Dum leaned closer to him in his seat

Peter shook his head as he stared back at the both of them. He waited for one of them to explain it to him.

"In denial means that you refuse to believe the truth or admit to something." Dee explained to the man.

"Which means that you like Onee-san more than a friend, even we could pick that up by the way you act around her." Dum finished as he leaned back on the chair.

The white rabbit glanced over at the dressing room Alice was in; his thoughts collided with each other. Trying to figure out what he was just told by the two younger boys. "In denial…huh…" he mumbled to himself.

Vivaldi came out of the room with a big grin on her face. "Come on Alice! Let them see how you look!"

"I look like an idiot…and what's with this price? !"

"Suck it up and come out here."

Alice sighed and came out of the room. She wore a dark navy-blue dress that shimmered under the light. The sleeves ended at her elbows as the dress fanned out at her hips-but still close enough to her body-down pass her knees. Yet still short enough to see her calves and her black flats. To top it off was a white rose that held back some of her bangs.

"You look pretty Onee-san!" Dee and Dum shouted as they shot out of their seats to take a closer look at the girl.

She lightly laughed while she scratched the back of her head. "Thanks guys, though I still think it's too much."

"Either way you look beautiful Alice." Peter responded with a smile on his lips.

Alice blushed as her eyes looked at the ground, she still scratched her head.

"Peter-san! I have some clothes for you to try!" Pierce yelled as he came over to the group with clothes in his hands.

"Wonderful Pierce! Now it's your turn Peter!" Vivaldi took the clothes from Pierce and shoved them into Peter's hands. She then pushed the man into another changing room.

"I'm going to take this off now." The huntress deadpanned walking back into the dressing room.

A few minutes passed and Peter came out wearing the clothes Pierce picked out for him. He wore a long black sleeve under shirt with a short sleeved red plaid, button down dress shirt over it. Some black dress jeans with his normal tennis shoes that Julius gave him.

"Not bad Pierce, but why do you wear that hat?" Vivaldi asked as she pointed to the same hat he always wore whenever she saw him.

"Because I want to." He simply stated to her.

"Alright, let's go find him some more clothes!"

The huntress nervously laughed. _'This is going to be a long afternoon.'_

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~**

"Remember Alice that you have to meet up with our brother this Saturday at the park around three o'clock." Vivaldi instructed that evening after their shopping was done and over with.

Said girl eyes slightly widened, she had just remembered why they were shopping in the first place. "Right…and I'll make sure to pay you back for the all the clothes you bought for us."

The ravenette shook her head. "No need to, all we want is for you to be happy Alice, and if this will make you so. Then what's a couple dollars for?"

Alice smiled as she hugged her friend. "Thanks Vivaldi…I'll…give it a try."

"Of course you will, now don't forget!" with that she grabbed the twins and walked off.

"Bye Peter-san! Bye Alice I'll see you at school tomorrow!" Pierce waved to them as he ran to catch up to the others.

Peter and Alice waved back to them with their bags of clothes in hand. They then began their walk back to the house in silence.

The white rabbit glanced to the huntress out of the corner of his eye; he noticed that something was troubling her. But he decided to not mention anything to her. _'What's troubling you so much Alice? …Could I help out in any way?' _he looked at the tall gates that surrounded his new home.

'_Will anything be different from now on? Or will things stay the same?'_

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~**

**Pure: For some reason I think this was more of a filler…well it does have its points in some cases. And sorry for the major late update, just never got time to get around to this. I'll try not to make this a regular habit of mine; even I don't like doing this.**

**Alice: You'll figure something out in the end.**

**Black: Yeah as long as you're not f**king lazy.**

**Pure: Thanks for the encouragement…I guess…I hope you still continue to enjoy this as much as I am. Leave a review and tell me what you think.**


	13. What could go wrong?

**Pure: I am really sorry for the very late update, I don't have much of an excuse as to why it took me so long. Other than the fact that I lost inspiration for this story and my others for a while. I am still going to continue them one way or another, and try to bring back that inspiration as well. But I hope you enjoy this none of the less.**

**I don't own Joker/Clover/Heart no Kuni no Alice.**

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~**

"Well I'm going to go soon, tell Julius I'll be back no later than nine." Alice walked down the stairs wearing the new dress she got a couple of days ago.

Saturday had come in a blink of an eye, and what more was that she had only one hour to meet up with Blood at the park. The thought of going on another date with him didn't digest well, but why? The huntress had always admired the college student; even at one point came to think of actually liking him. But something in her told her that this wasn't right, that he wasn't right.

'_Is this the right thing to do?' _the brunette thought as she opened the door. _'Well I better get this through so that I can get back and finish the last of my homework. I have way too much of it.' _With that she walked out closing the door behind her.

"Yeah, I'll make sure to tell him." Peter called back when she left, he sighed as he sat on the stairs with his chin rested on his hand.

What was he suppose to do now? Alice had gone on her date-something in which he still cannot fathom- that then left him at home with Julius. Boris went to work while Ace was at school practicing for the upcoming kendo tournament. There wasn't much to do at home, and as if he was going to go around the city. He would rather not take the chance of getting lost in something that big.

He groaned, dropping his head between his knees. "What am I to do now?" his ears twitched, when he looked up the door bell rang. Peter got up and walked over to the door. "Hello?"

"Hey Peter!" both Dee and Dum shouted when he had opened the door.

Said man looked down at the twins, a baffled expression his face. "Hi?" this was clearly a surprise to him. What reason would they come? Didn't they know that Alice would be on her date by now?

"We thought that you would be bummed that Onee-san would be on her date by now." Dee said as he came into the house.

"But I'm not—"

"So we decided to come by to help you spy on her date!" Dum said cutting off Peter.

"Spy? I don't want—"

"Are those real?" they asked while pointing to his ears, both twins came up to the man and stared intently at them.

The white rabbit lifted his hand up to touch them; he realized that he wasn't wearing his hat. "Shoot…"

"Cool! Can you hear from far away?" Dee questioned, he tried to reach up and touch them, but couldn't quite get it.

"Are they soft like a real rabbit?" Dum asked as he managed to grab one. "They are! Brother you have to feel them!"

The azure-eyed twin reached up and touched one too. "You're right brother! This is so cool!"

Peter slightly blushed; their reactions were very different from what he thought they would be. From reactions in the past, this one made him think that there are people who could accept him for who he is. _'Just like how Alice did when we first met…' _

"Hey Peter? You still in there?" they asked while waving their hand in front of his face.

"What? Yeah I'm fine."

"Good." Dee stated as he released his ear.

"Now let's go before they get any farther in their date!" Dum pulled at the white rabbit's hand, his brother promptly helped as they pulled Peter along with them.

Blinking, he noticed what they were trying to do. "We shouldn't spy on their date! It's personal!"

"Ehhh? Aren't you curious as to what they could be doing?" the azure-eyed boy asked as they stopped by the door.

"Well I believe that it's—"

"They could be holding hands, hugging—"The crimson-eyed boy said cutting off the older man.

"Or even kissing!" both twins said faking a gasp.

Peter slightly bit his lip, he understood what the first two were, but the last one was still confusing for him. Alice hadn't thoroughly explained that to him well enough, she was always blushing when it came to it. However, he had been curious as to what a "date" is liked…maybe it would be okay.

"Well…I am slightly curious as to what a date can really be…maybe for a little while?" he suggested looking back down at the twins.

"Alright!" Dee shouted as he pulled at him once more.

"Let's go before we miss everything!" Dum yelled while pulling him also.

'_What did I get myself in to?' _

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~**

Alice looked up toward the man she was currently walking with, it had been already over an hour just walking around aimlessly. Was there something they were supposed to be doing? This was a date, wasn't it? Then why were they just walking around? Apparently she wasn't good with this sort of thing.

'_Isn't there anything else we can do? You know besides walking?' _the huntress let out a stifled sigh, and then shivered a bit. _'Why do I have the feeling as if we're being watched?'_

Off in the distance they were, indeed being watched. Three heads popped up from behind a bush as they had been watching the pair for a while now. And some-more than one actually-didn't like what they were seeing.

"This is boring brother." Dee deadpanned softly.

"You're right brother, they haven't done anything yet." Dum stated giving a faint sigh. "Hopefully they will do something more exciting soon."

Peter nervously laughed. "Maybe we should just leave them, we've watched them long enough. Let them have their privacy."

"And miss out on this great opportunity?" the azure-eyed twin said.

The crimson eyed twin jumped up and shout whispered. "No way!"

Both twins started to follow Alice and Blood once more, ignoring the white rabbit's complaints.

"Why did I agree to this again?" sighing, Peter got up as well and went after the twins.

The trio had caught up to the couple just in time to see them go into a store. Finally, they would see something different! They went into the store as well to get a closer look; so far, all they had saw was that the couple had glanced around. Lame!

"Awww this is no fun either!" both twins whined as they watched from behind one of the aisles in the store.

"We should be going; we've watched them long enough." Peter pleaded to both boys as he stood a couple of feet behind them.

Dee turned around to face him. "Not yet!"

"Not until we see some action!" Dum said as he looked over his shoulder.

The white rabbit tilted his head slightly. "Action?"

Both twins nodded their head before turning back around to watch Alice and Blood once more.

"I have an idea brother." The red-eyed twin whispered to his brother.

"What would that be brother?" the blue-eyed twin whispered back.

Things got quiet as Dum whispered his plan into Dee's ear. "Alright, go!" they said together.

"Hey wait what do you me—"Peter couldn't finish for they already took off. "This might turn out bad." He looked over at Alice and waited to see what they would do.

Alice continued to look at the little nick nacks the store had to offer. They were adorable don't get her wrong, but the store didn't seem like the one Blood would take her in to. As she was about to pick one up, her legs gave out from under her. She was falling back. Looking up, she saw that Blood had fell forward towards her.

He quickly grabbed her and twisted around so that he fell to the ground first with the huntress laying on him.

Peter stared at what just happened, mouth wide open.

"Will they do anything different now?" Dee asked as he looked over.

"Let's see brother." Dum replied looking over also.

The white rabbit gazed at them then back at the scene.

'_What just happened?' _the brunette thought, she looked down at the man she was laying on.

Sitting up, Blood stood up as he helped Alice up. He turned around and headed to the door. "Lets go."

Alice's eyebrow rose at his demand but followed none of the less. _'Okay, he has more of an attitude than I imagined he would have. And I never notice this before because…?' _ She sighed softly again.

"Man nothing good happened again!" the twins whined after the couple left.

Peter nervously laughed. "Why don't we just go already and leave them—"

"And miss any other part of their date?" the azure-eyed twin questioned.

"No way! Let's follow before we lose them!" the crimson eyed twin shouted running out of the shop with his brother right behind him.

The snow white-haired man dropped his head. _'They're more of a handful than I thought they would.' _He looked up and quickly followed after them.

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~**

"I can't believe you lost them!" Dum shouted at his brother.

The group had been walking around for already an hour and a half with no sight of the couple. Both twins continued to argue as Peter quietly observed them glad that they had lost them.

"I didn't lose them! We were following you!" Dee yelled back as he got up in his brother's face.

Dum glared back. "We wouldn't have lost them if you hadn't been so slow to follow!"

"Slow? ! It was him who was slow!" the azure-eyed brother pointed at the older man.

He held up his hands in a form of surrendered. "Don't bring me into this, I said to leave them be."

"He is right though, you were too slow!" the scarlet-eyed brother said to back up his brother.

"Why don't we just calm down and work this out?"

"We-!"

"You're already shouting even before we come."

The trio turned and found Vivaldi and Pierce standing a few feet away from them.

"No one asked you hag." Both twins stuck their tongues out at the girl.

Vivaldi's eye twitched. "What was that you peasants?"

"Peasants?" Dee asked eyebrow rose.

"What are we in the middle ages?" Dum questioned arms crossed.

The purplette groaned as she shook her head. "We over heard that you were searching for our brother?"

"Yes!"

"We saw that they went into a restaurant not too long ago, it's that way." She pointed down the street.

"After them!" they took off once more.

Peter sighed as he ran after them.

"Let's go Pierce, this might get interesting." Vivaldi took his hand and ran after the trio, as well.

Said boy slightly blush at the contact, but had to follow anyway.

The group eventually made their way to the restaurant, they watched from outside as they hid in the forage right next to the window.

Alice ate her food silently, the atmosphere was really tense between them both, and nether tried to make conversation. Not that it was easy to do so in the first place, getting him even to look at her was difficult enough. Talking to him wasn't making it any easier.

'_Well this has been such a date and yet…Why don't I feel anything for him? Is it because of…' _the huntress glanced down at her half eaten food. Different feeling swarmed all throughout her mind, she didn't know what to make of them.

Now inside, the group argued over their next move so that the "date" would be even more interesting.

"It's perfect!" the twins quietly shouted so no one else would hear them.

"No it's not! That would make it worse!" Vivaldi softly yelled back.

Peter and Pierce watched them argue back and forth.

"What do you think Peter-san?" Pierce asked as he looked over at him.

He looked over at him. "In my opinion we should just leave them alone…" he gazed back at the couple, hurt shone in his eyes. "It's none of our business anyway."

The young boy noticed that, but decided against telling him. "Oh…"

"No! What are you two doing? !" the purplette tried to grab them, but they were too fast for her.

Both twins were going to put their plan into action; they had crept up on the waiter that was bringing refills for Alice's table. When the waiter got close enough, Dee and Dum pushed him just enough so that he would spill the drinks all over Blood. After their mission had completed, they had run off before they were caught.

"I'm terribly sorry sir!"

"It's fine; can we just have our check?" Blood deadpanned as he stared down at his now soaked clothing.

"Yes right away!" he ran off to retrieve the check.

The huntress stared slightly eye wide at Blood's ruined clothes. She carried on with her eating as if nothing happened. _'This happened a lot today, well; at least something wants to sabotage this date. Not that I call this a date anymore, at least it's almost over.' _

"Here is your check sir." The waiter returned with the check as he handed it to the raven-haired man.

He nodded his head, taking out the right amount of money, he stood up. "Let's go Alice."

She stood up and followed him. "Whatever you say…_Blood_." She mumbled rolling her eyes.

Dee and Dum were laughing their heads off as they held their sides from all the laughing they were doing.

"That's not funny!" Vivaldi shouted at them.

"You know they're leaving right?" Pierce mentioned pointing to where they had left.

"After them!" both twins managed to say through their fits of laughter. They got up off the floor and ran after them.

"Oh no you don't!" the purplette ran after the twins.

Peter and Pierce followed the trio, where as there was nothing else for them to do.

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~**

Alice and Blood walked through the park, night had come, and lights lit up the streets with an eerie like glow. Silence fell over them both; it didn't help with the mood of the place; instead it made things more unbearable. They walked to a nearby bench to sit so that the raven-haired man could try to dry his clothes.

The group managed to catch up to the pair and hidden themselves in the bushes and trees next to the bench.

"Now is the part we've been waiting for brother!" Dee whispered quite loudly.

"You're right brother!" Dum whispered back just as loud.

"But you won't be able to see it, we're going. Now." Vivaldi pulled at both boys as they all struggled.

Peter and Pierce tried to stop them, but they had lost their footing. The whole group fell out of the bushes and landed on the floor right to the side of the couple.

The brunette stood when she had heard grunts and a muffled shriek. "What the?" turning she saw them all on the floor on top of one another. "What are you all doing here?"

"It looks as if we've been found out…" the twins mumbled out from under Vivaldi. "Get off hag!"

"Hmph!" she got off them, then crossed her arms over her chest.

"Can someone just tell me why you've been following us?" Alice impatiently demanded hands on her hips.

They all glanced at one another, and then nervously shrugged.

"Is that a trick question?" the twins inquired as they hid behind Pierce.

"Not in the slightest, just answer so we can go back to what we were doing."

Blood glanced over at his sister; his eyes glowered down at her. "Vivaldi I thought you were out shopping."

She rubbed her hands together before looking back at him. "We were! But we had seen that they were following you around, so we tried to stop them!"

"Don't you know how anxious father could have-" he stopped when he had noticed something very…peculiar.

"Blood!" Elliot had called out while he and Gray ran up to him. "Blood you need to…uh Blood? You okay?" he asked then followed his line of sight.

They had looked back at Peter, or more likely his ears. With the hat off his head, it was in plain sight for anyone to see.

He had finally discerned that they were staring at him. Lifting up his hand, he had tried to feel for the hat, but it wasn't there. Peter gazed down to the side, his hat laid next to him on the ground. "Oh…so that's what happened…"

"B…bunny ears?" Vivaldi attempted to process this new piece of information, but nothing was sticking.

Alice's eyes widened at the sight. _'N-Not good…' _she thought as her mind raced through some possible ideas that she could try to cover this up.

"I always knew that you were weird, but now you're just a plain freak." Blood smirked while he shrugged. "Who would have thought though, that you would be some sort of…abomination for the lack of word." He scoffed. "Not that it really—"

A thunderous sound rang through; everyone grew silent when it had happened.

His cheek had stung, head slowly turning; Blood's gaze rested back on the brunette who sapphire orbs glared daggers at him, but held tears in them.

"What do you know? As if you're one to talk, you don't know a damn thing about him. You're not even any better! I can't understand how I came to like you anymore, you…you Mafioso!" she shouted still scowling at him. "Sorry for telling everyone about your so called "secret" job, but you don't have that right to say shit about him." Anger came out in feisty spats at the older man before her. "As if you have any right to make decisions for me also." Alice rotated around and walked off not letting even one tear fall from her eyes.

Blood clenched his teeth as he took a step forward. "Why you little bi—"

"What a foul mouth you have, maybe even worse than Black's."

"Hey! I can talk circles around this bastard!"

Peter looked up and saw the Jokers in the trees next to them. "White…and…Black? Why are you here?"

They jumped down landing next to the white rabbit. Their clothes were normal ones rather than the hunter's gear he had seen back at the tournament. What confused him, though, was that they had their bows on their backs.

"Just decided to drop on in while the conversation got interesting." White stated a smile on his face.

Black rolled his eyes. "You make us sound like stalkers."

"Oh but isn't that what we were doing?"

"Quit it, you're not helping."

"What the f**k is this?" the raven-haired man questioned staring back at both men.

"My you do have a mouth, and to use it in front of children here as well."

Both twins glanced at each other. "He just called us children." They said, not that the others paid them much attention.

"You better go calm her down. Now." Black insisted as he stood up all the way. "We will handle things here."

Peter stood up; grabbing the hat, he turned around. "Thank you." He ran off slipping his hat on while doing so.

"You won't be-" his eyes went a bit wide when the arrow landed to his left into the ground.

"Next time it will be your leg." The hunter spat as he raised his bow up even more now that the arrow pointed at the Mafioso's leg.

Everyone else watched fearfully; what was happening to them? And why?

Vivaldi took a step toward Blood, hands clenched against her chest. "Brother what is going on? What did Alice mean by…Mafioso?"

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~**

**Pure: Don't know how much this makes up for things, but I at least finished this. Next one we get to find out quite a few things, thank you for sticking with my late updates and me. Review to tell me what you think.**


	14. Past Revealed

**Pure: Hello everyone! Pure here and I've finally gotten back into the mood for writing after so freaking long. I apologize that I haven't updated, but the story is not dead I can tell you that! We are getting really close to the end of this story and I've really liked this. So without further ado the next chapter of Rare Creature!**

**I don't own Joker/Clover/Heart no Kuni no Alice!**

**~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~**

It was silent; Vivaldi's question still lingered in the air though no one moved to answer it.

Elliot was the first to break the long silence that went on for quite some time. "Blood we need to get going, the boss—"

"Not until I get that little bitch back for what she—" Blood felt a sharp sting on his leg, he looked down to see that actual blood was dripping down his leg from the fresh wound that cut through his pant leg.

"Still using such foul language, what example do you set for your sister?" White lowered his bow a bit showing that he was the one who had shot at the older man. Though his smile was small, his eyes shined with something much darker that reflected on his menacing looking smirk.

Black glared back at his brother. "I was going to shoot him."

The smile returned to a more cheerful, mocking look on White's face from its previous darker intent. "Then you should have been faster at it."

He rolled his eyes. "Show off." He muttered under his breath.

"Blood Elliot we need to go right now." Gray spoke up to them a hint of edginess in his voice.

"We still want answers brother!" Vivaldi shouted stomping her foot in anger.

"Maybe we should…" the twins started taking a step back.

"Go?" Pierce finished also taking a step back with them.

The three turned ready to leave until they were pulled back.

"You three are not going anywhere, you're staying right here. Blood! Explain to us what Alice meant about you being a Mafioso!" the purplette shouted more holding the boys back so that they wouldn't try to run off again.

The more obnoxious hunter smirked to the college student. "Yeah why not tell your sister who you actually are bastard?"

Blood glared back at the hunter, his patience running thin the longer they were there. He didn't have time to dilly dally in this idiotic matter, that girl had to pay for exposing and humiliating him in public. But he couldn't go anywhere with the twin hunters standing in his way. _'This isn't turning out well; I have to get out of this bind.' _The ravenet looked for some way to escape the situation he was in.

Vivaldi let the twins and Pierce go as she marched up and stood in front of her older brother. "Blood we wish to know. Now."

He glanced down at her; she was becoming quite a pain at the moment also. "Vivaldi this is none of your business, as for you two being cowards hiding behind those bows why don't you fight me up close then?"

"Why you little—" Black was going to drop his bow when a hand was placed on his shoulder.

"Don't let him provoke you Black, that's all he wants." White looked back at the older man. "Besides, I highly doubt he has the skill to back it up, am I right Ma-fi-o-so?"

A burning rage swept through Blood, not only was he humiliated, but now was being mocked! As if these children had such nerve! But he wasn't going to play into their hands either. "Let's go." He turned and left, his hands clenched at his sides.

Elliot and Gray had looked at one another before they followed after him, not before taking one glance back at everyone else.

"Gray! Elliot!"

They quickened their pace to catch up to the fuming Blood, not wanting to cause more trouble than there was.

It was quiet between the remaining six, the sounds of rustling from the trees and bushes came when a light breeze blew around them.

The twin hunters put their bows on their backs again, seeing that things might turn for the worse again, they headed off in the direction that Alice ran not too long ago.

"W-Wait!" Vivaldi jogged up to them as she stood in their way.

"Move it shrimp." Black sneered pushing her out of the way.

"Some nerve you have! Stop!" she was in front of them again.

"What do you want?" he was getting impatient, tapping his foot to confirm his feeling.

"You must know about our brother! Tell us what you know!"

Dee and Dum took this time to try and slip away again, but this time Pierce had stopped them. "Now you?" they looked up at him annoyed and quite curious as to his reasons.

Pierce stared back at them then released his hold shaking his hands back and forth. "W-We s-shouldn't leave her with t-them! T-They could…"

"The hag can take care of herself." The blue-eyed one deadpanned.

"They wouldn't be able to handle how long she talks for." The red-eyed one mentioned putting his hands behind his head.

Both Vivaldi's and Black's eye twitched as they turned to face them. "We can still hear you two!"

White chuckled clearly liking where this little argument could possibly go in a matter of minutes.

"Stop your laughing prick!" the harsher twin spun back around to glare at his brother.

"On the contrary I was chuckling, which is different from laughing."

"This is getting us nowhere! Can you tell us about our brother or can you not?!" the purplette was already distress from all the lies that apparently she was given at her home. She did not need to be shouting for answers she obviously had a right to know about.

A sigh left Black's lips when he faced the girl again. "We know little of what your brother does, we aren't much help."

"Anything you know will be excellent for now, so please."

He motioned to White to tell her.

"I just hope you don't regret what we're going to tell you."

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~**

Alice furiously walked back to her home, tears still streamed down her face with every stride she took. Her mind couldn't fathom how she came to like that jerk. _'Was it because he was the first boy besides Boris to talk to me that wasn't my family? Gah I don't know! I can't even understand why I ever liked him!' _

The tall silhouette of the house came into view; the sun was just about to set giving the place an odd sense of fear to it.

'_I just want to go up to my room and just forget about this entire day ever—'_

"Alice!"

The brunette stopped walking as she turned around; Peter ran up to her his hat back on his head again. "P-Peter? W-What are you—"

Said man panted when he stopped in front of her. "Are…you…okay?" his hands rested on his knees as he looked up at her.

How was she supposed to respond to him? Her anger still lingered in her, ready to come back out at any moment. Alice didn't want to take it out on him, he didn't do anything wrong. This was all Blood's fault.

"Alice?"

Snapping out of her thoughts the huntress looked back at him. "I'm fine, why don't we go back inside now?" she wiped away her tears pretending that they weren't there to begin with.

Peter straightened up now towering over her smaller form. "Alice you're not okay, don't you trust me to tell me what's wrong?"

The brunette flinched at this but held her ground. "I do trust you. It's just—"

"How about I tell you one of mine? Then will you tell me yours?"

"Oh Peter I don't want you to—"

"Will you?" he wouldn't take anything else for an answer; he stared back at her determined not to break.

A sigh escaped her lips; she could tell that he wouldn't let this go despite what she says. "If it will make you happy…then alright."

Quite surprised that she agreed to it, the white-haired man wasn't going to let it go to waste. He thought carefully on how he was going to word things the best to his abilities. "Have you wondered why I can transform into a rabbit? Or why I have rabbit ears?"

"Well…yeah I have…but I decided not to question it since I didn't want to ask you something that you might not be comfortable with."

Peter gave her a soft smile. "Honestly I don't know it all myself, but from what I do know my mother she…sold some of her…eggs?"

Alice blushed but motioned for him to continue.

Puzzled, he didn't push it further and just continued. "Well apparently some people wanted to experiment on them for…some reason, and I came out of that. At first things were normal in my case, but when I turned one everything…went for the worse you can say."

The huntress's eyebrow rose showing that she didn't quite understood him.

"When I turned one I already had the body of a…nine or ten year old."

That was enough to put the girl in complete shock.

But that didn't stop him from going on. "My parents were horrified, especially when I grew the rabbit ears, and unnatural snow white hair with blood red eyes. I was still so confused; I didn't understand what was going on. The next thing I knew was that I was running through the streets, blood dripping down my arm."

'_Oh my god…'_ Alice couldn't believe the tale that Peter was giving her; it was…just not right in her opinion.

"I ended up in the forest, I can't remember how long it was before I made it there, I treated my arm the best I could manage, but I still have a scar on it I think. It was night time I believe, and I had nowhere to go, my parents didn't want me, I don't know of any relatives, so my best bet was the forest I stumbled into."

Tears formed in the huntress's eyes again. _'Peter…'_

He thought of what happened after that, scratching his cheek in thought. "Oh that's right, out of nowhere I had transformed into a rabbit. Really I was freaking out at that point, but soon I calmed down and went with the fact that I was now a rabbit. I don't know how I became one, but I was. After that, I stayed in that form until you found me."

Alice jumped forward and hugged him tightly.

"A-A-A-Alice?" a bright blush graced his cheeks when he saw that she was hugging him.

"How long has it been since then?"

"I-I'm n-not sure…things seemed to move by so slow when I was a rabbit. Things felt like an eternity when it could have only been a year."

His life had been hard, much more than hers. Though her parents died loving her, his rejected him when he was only one. ONE! He is practically a baby still! Why would they do that to him?

"I'm sorry."

"What?"

She shook a bit. "I'm sorry that this had to happen to you, being abandoned by your parents at a really, really young age. You must have felt alone."

"I don't feel alone anymore though,"

Alice pulled back and looked up at the man, her tear stained cheeks red and puffy.

"Because…I have you now and all the others too." He smiled sweetly to her a small blush still on his cheeks. "So you don't need to cry for my sake, I wanted to stop your crying not make you cry even more."

Her heart fluttered in her chest, what was that feeling? She…couldn't quite place it, but it seemed so familiar to her.

"You okay now Alice? Or is something still troubling you?" Peter tilted his head to the side, gazing back down at her.

Blushing a little as well, the brunette leaned up and quickly pecked his cheek. Pulling back she turned around. "I'm alright now; we should get inside before Julius scolds us for being out so late." She slowly walked into the house.

Peter's blush darkened greatly from the small kiss he received on his cheek. _'That feeling is back…what was it called again?' _he quickly followed after her, not wanting to be left behind.

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~**

**Pure: I've finished! I…honestly have no excuse for why it took this long to post this up, and for that I'm truly…truly sorry. I hope people are still reading this for there's probably one more chapter after this. I've come a long way and I'm going to finish! Thank you very much if you still read this story and have stayed with me for this long! I hoped this was good for you all and look forward to the last one I'm hoping very soon!**


	15. Rare Indeed

**Pure: And I'm back! I thank you all who are reading this still though I do not blame you if you're not. We're on the last chapter of Rare Creature and I have to say, this story has been one of my favorites. Though looking it over again there are some parts that I could have done better on but oh well. Thank you very much once again and here is the last chapter!**

**I do NOT own Joker/Clover/Heart no Kuni no Alice!**

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~**

Alice walked out of school one warm afternoon, the sun high in the sky, students happily chatting as they made their way back home. She stretched her arms above her head while a deep sigh escaped her lips.

"Alice!"

Said girl looked around for the one who called her name, and found that it was Vivaldi who did. A smile came on the brunette's lips as she ran up to her. "Vivaldi!" she stopped in front of her still smiling. "How have things been?"

"Doing well, we've decided to live with our relatives close by here so that we don't have to leave you."

"I'm really sorry Vivaldi; it was my fault that this happened with your family three months ago…"

The purplette placed her hands on the other girl's shoulders. "Do not worry about it; we want you to be happy Alice. Even if it's not with our brother, we do not hate him but are disappointed."

"But—"

"No buts Alice, we are fine with what is happening now. That's in the past; now let us look toward the future."

A small smile came on Alice's lips. "Alright."

Vivaldi smiled back at her. "Besides! Summer break is in a week! So be happy!"

"I will—"

"Onee-chan!"

The brunette turned to see that Dee and Dum ran up to her quickly latching onto her arms. "Dee Dum."

"Where did you head off to Onee-chan?" Dee asked while looking up at her.

"You haven't hanged out with us in so long!" Dum hugged her arm tighter snuggling up to her.

She couldn't blame them, she had been extremely distant lately since the incident with Blood, even Julius and Boris were worried about her well being. Things have just been particularly complicated…for the most part anyway, and it's not only with what happened with Blood. But she wasn't going to let this get to her, she just needs a little more time…

The brunette smiled softly down at them. "I'm sorry Dee Dum; I've just had a lot of things on my mind."

"It's alright Onee-chan."

"How about we hang out—"

"Oh no you don't."

The group turned to see Gowland grab the twins by their collars, lifting them up off the ground and away from Alice. "Principal Gowland!"

Gowland scowled down at the boys. "You both are in deep trouble, vandalizing the school like you did."

Dee and Dum snickered.

"We didn't do anything _that_ severe Mr. Gowland." Dee stated snickering still.

"All we did was spray paint your full name all over the school's side wall!"

The principal's eye twitched as he glared down at them. "That's exactly why you both are—" a ringing sound came from his pocket, Gowland took out his phone and answered it. "Hello? …Nightmare what is it? …What?! You better not be—! Ahh! Don't get it all over the paper work! We need that!" He slammed his phone shut as he headed back in carrying the twins still.

"We'll see you Saturday Onee-chan!" they called out waving back to her.

Both girls sweat dropped at what just happened. "Ummm…"

"A-Alice!"

She turned once more to this time see Pierce running up to her. "Good afternoon Pierce, you're staying out of trouble right?"

"Y-Yes, I came to see if w-we're still h-hanging out Saturday…"

"Of course we are, down close by the lake."

"R-Right! Around t-three correct?"

Alice smiled nodding. "Yup."

"We look forward to it greatly Alice!" Vivaldi brought her hands together smiling also.

"I look forward to it also; we haven't hung out in so—"

"Alice!"

The brunette looked over to where her name was called, she saw Peter waving to her motioning her to come over too. "I have to go you guys I'll see you Saturday!" she waved bye to the two as she headed over to him. "Hi Peter."

"Hi Alice! Ready to go home?" he motioned to the car next to him.

She stared at it, then back up at him. "You drove here? Since when could you drive?"

Peter slipped his hand into his pocket pulling out his driver's licenses while showing her it. "I got it today! Julius and Boris had been teaching me over the last three months. I took the test not too long ago and passed! This came in the mail today and so they told me to come and pick you up to surprise you. Isn't this great?"

More shocking on her part to say the least. _'I didn't expect him to pass it all so quickly, then again he was a fast learner…but still…' _

A small smile came on her lips nodding her head. "Yeah that is wonderful, lets go—"

"Hey Alice! Oh hey rabbit!" Ace draped his arms around both of their shoulders pulling them in close. "What's up?"

"Ace! Let us go!"

"Why? Besides we're heading home soon! I'll drive!" he snatched the keys from Peter hopping into the driver's seat.

The color drained from the huntress's face at the thought of getting into the car with Ace driving.

Peter didn't know of the danger he was getting himself into by allowing the brunet to drive, but he pushed that all aside as he pulled Alice into the car.

"No! We're going to die!"

"Ahahaha! That's so mean Alice! Here we go!" Putting the car into drive, Ace pulled out of the parking spot speeding down the street.

Both Alice and Peter held on for dear life as they sped down the streets taking hard turns left and right.

"Right Ace! RIGHT!" Alice shouted still holding onto the seat.

The man just laughed happily as he made another hard right turn.

'_We're going to die!'_

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~**

"I was sick all week because of Ace…" Alice stumbled down the stairs holding onto the railing for support.

Peter laid on the couch holding his head. "Moved…so…quickly…against…rules…"

The brunette had expected the worst from her rabbit friend, but he was holding on a lot better than anyone of them had in the past.

"You both look as if you've seen a ghost." Boris said resting his arms on the back of the couch looking down at Peter.

"If you count Ace's driving as one then sure."

"Hey I wasn't that terrible sis!" Ace wrapped his arm around her shoulders grinning once more.

Alice glanced up at him taking his arm off her. "Yes it was, you still need a lot of practice."

Boris looked back up at them. "Well if could have been worse."

"What is worse…than that…?" Peter softly called out his head spinning.

"It's been almost a week man; it still can't keep affecting you."

"All of you stop complaining, I can hear you from my office." Julius stepped out holding a cup of coffee in his hands.

The brunet came up to the veterinarian now swinging his arm around his shoulders. "Tell them Julius that I'm not that horrific of a driver!"

He remained silent drinking some of his coffee.

"See! Even Julius agrees with us!" Alice pointed out.

"Don't you have a gathering to go to?"

"Ah you're right! Thanks for the reminder Julius! Come on Peter we need to get going!"

"Take Ace with you."

"But—!"

Julius shook his head. "No buts, besides he needs to get out more."

The brunet laughed. "I sound like a pet to you guys."

A soft sigh came from her lips. "Alright, let's go then." She pulled Peter up and dragged them both out of the house.

"Don't come back late now! Nine o'clock the latest!" Boris had called out to them before they left.

The three of them decided to walk to the park—or more like forced Ace to walk for fear that he would want to drive them again—in a comfortable silence. Each dressed in simple clothing along with Peter's hat to cover his ears from public attraction. All enjoyed the peace silence for the amount it had lasted before Ace had to start talking to break it. It stayed like that for the rest of the time it took to get to the park.

"Onee-chan!" the twins shouted when they saw the three approach them, they ran up to her and latched onto one of her arms. "You want to play a game right?"

"Huh?"

"No!" Vivaldi came up and grabbed her other arm. "She would like to go shopping with us right Alice?"

"Who would like to go shopping with a hag like you?"

"What did you call us?"

"Hag! Because that's what you are!"

The three glared daggers at the other holding onto the brunette's arms tightly determined not to let go.

Pierce came up to the group where the three who just arrived where quite confused by what was happening. "T-They have been fighting over what we all should do now…"

"Shopping!"

"Game!"

Alice was getting tired by their bickering; she was going to answer when another voice cut her off.

"Aren't you both a little too old for games?"

The group turned and saw the Joker brothers standing not too far off from them.

"Black! White! What are you still doing here?"

White smiled to her as they came closer. "We decided to stay a while longer, or permanently is more accurate."

She looked at them skeptically. "What reason would you have to stay here?"

"Can you truly not figure it out whore?" Black crossed his arms staring at her.

Eye twitching, the huntress glared back at him. "What did you call me?"

Before he could speak again, White intervened by stepping in front of him. "Lets not add fuel to the fire Black."

"Are we going to do anything at all?" Ace asked as he put his hands behind his head.

Peter watched them his hands behind his back; he wasn't all that use to being around those who knew his secret. Or at least a part of it, but he knew that he could trust them with that secret. They wouldn't leave him because of it. _'Alice has been so kind to me, allowing me to stay with her, I couldn't thank her enough for all that she has done for me. I wish I could repay her one day…'_

"How about we do that game you boys suggested?" White rested his hands on his hips a smile still gracing his lips.

"Yes!" Dee shouted.

"Told you hag!" Dum pointed back at her face.

Her eye twitched as she tried to contain her anger as much as possible.

Black scowled looking over at his twin. "What is wrong with you? You still kid or what?"

"Actually Black I think you would especially enjoy this game, being the kind of person you are." The hunter crossed his arms glancing back at him, his smile turned into a sly one as he talked in a low whisper. "It's a game of hide and seek."

The young man thought quickly about it, soon after his face lit up like a red stop light. "White you can't be—"

"How about hide and seek?"

"Why not? Would be fun wouldn't it brother?"

"It sure would brother."

"Sweet hide and seek I'll play!" Ace happily said putting his arms down to his side.

"We will play this idiotic game of yours."

"O-Okay sure." Pierce timidly said nodding.

White rested his hands on his hips again. "Good, then me and Alice aren't it, come along Alice let's get a head start." He took her hand as he pulled her along the both of them running away from the group.

"Hey!" everyone shouted at the jester who made a get away with their dear friend and/or love interest.

"Get back here!" the twins yelled running after them.

"Damn it White you bastard!" Black sprinted after him angry as hell.

"Come back with our friend!" Vivaldi shouted running with Pierce right behind her.

"Hey you took my sister!" Ace laughed running thinking this is a new game.

"Alice!" Peter ran holding down his hat to keep it from blowing away.

White gave a merry laugh as he continued to pull the brunette along. "They won't catch up that easily."

Looking back, Alice saw all her friends running to catch up with them. Her eyes trailed over to Peter, who was making his way toward the front of the group. A smile came on her lips when she saw him. _'You have been so kind and dear to me Peter, I couldn't ask for anything more.'_

Peter kept running, he had brought his hands down in order to run faster, in doing so made his hat fly away revealing his rabbit ears.

'_So special in your own way…a Rare Creature indeed.'_

**~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~**

**Pure: And it is done! After so long too! I hope everyone liked the ending I thought it was cute and funny. Hopefully you liked it as well. Well this is an end for this story; I do hope you've enjoyed this to the end because I have enjoyed it very much. Thank you to all of you who have stuck by me to the end! I give you my thanks then fold! Please be on the lookout for my other stories and tell me what you think! **


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